Slytherins Secret
by Annanas23
Summary: AU end of CoS. When Harry defeats the Heir of Slytherin 3 times what does that mean? And what affect did all of those substances in his bloodstream have? A sneakier more motivated Harry. Definite Dumbledore, Molly bashing, will probably redeem Snape. Bit young for pairings but I favour Luna.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, anything you recognise as coming from the books, does.

**Slytherins secret**

**AN: Thank you for following and reviewing. This is the first time I've written anything since school coursework so if I'm making mistakes PLEASE let me know. (on that note I can't believe I misspelled Dumbledore, I feel like such a moron) Oh and I reordered the bit at the end of the book where Harry asks about his parseltongue to the conversation in the middle where he first meets Fawkes. Also I agree with one of my reviewers that I stopped the chapter in the wrong place, so here we go chapter 1 and 2 merged.**

Prologue

Deep in the Chamber of Secrets, as Harry battled the crazed Heir of Slytherin, Old Magics stirred. An ancient intelligence began to awaken from his slumber, flashes of memory coming in fits and bursts, he saw…

_- A twisted man with high cold laughter destroyed by his own curse cast upon a babe –_

_-A monster loosed in a school and a damsel saved-_

_- A malignant spirit surviving on unicorn blood curse a child's broom and defeated by accident and its own servant -_

_- The spirit's return thwarted by a child's determination and selflessness -_

And, as if it were happening currently…

Harry knew what he had to do, the sword's weight rested comfortably in his hands, despite his inexperience with the blade, he settled himself knowing that this could go horribly wrong. _But Ginny is DYING, and I can't think of a better plan, I've got to stop him. _He thought grimly before lunging to stab directly through the roof of the Basilisk's mouth. As he felt the searing pain spreading through his forearm he knew his prediction was accurate. _Story of my life, at least now I will be famous for something I bloody well did_ he grumbled internally. _Pity I won't get to enjoy it, but I am DAMN well going to take Tom out with me; after all, the hero always saves the girl. Right_? he thought wryly.

As the burning numbness began to spread with each beat off his heart, Harry directed his convulsive collapse and a pathetic flop right next to Riddle's stupid diary. The ghostly boy had yet to stop gloating about the terrible agony Harry was in, _which I could really do without the reminder of_ and was now lovingly describing the effects of the venom on internal organs. _That's funny, it seems to have hit a block _Harry realised, as he felt the poison reach his heart; never one to question the odd luck the universe had decided to gift him with, Harry yanked the snapped fang from his arm and stabbed it into the diary that he had -oh so conveniently- landed next to.

Just as he was beginning to pass out to the melodic sounds of Riddle's screams, he saw Fawkes leaning over him with tears in his eyes. As he tried desperately to explain to the beautiful bird that he didn't mind dying too terribly as he would be seeing his parents again, he felt the block falter and dissolve allowing the poison to continue unimpeded and oblivion took him.

_-The twisted wizard's return foiled again by the child's determination and drive to protect others.-_

_Now this, this I can work with_ the intelligence thought to himself, and began the long process of getting up to date.

Chapter one – Strange Awakenings

As Harry's mind swam back to normalcy, thanks to the effects of Fawkes' tears, he heard an echoing sibilant voice "..eir? Young Heir? Can you hear me child?" Surprise reverberated through him, _I hurt all over, so I'm not dead. How? Why? Oh dear Merlin why me?_

"Wha'?" Harry moaned intelligently, his confusion at surviving evident and the voice chuckled.

"Wonderful! You have the strangest of fortune child, the terrible misfortune to be bitten by a Basilisk; (muttered I am sorry about her) yet the astonishing good fortune to have a Phoenix both available and willing to heal you. Most peculiar..." the voice somehow gave the impression that it was shaking its head in mirth "Thankfully you appear to have survived the experience," the voice changed becoming more serious "I was terribly concerned for a while there, the depths my blood line has sunk to make me ashamed to have even left a legacy. Still," and here the voice became more upbeat, "still; it appears that you might be able to do a little something to redeem me before the line is lost to oblivion. The Old Magics are working in both of our favours right at this moment."

"Sir? What…?" Harry queried confusedly. His whole body still aching and twitching randomly as the Phoenix tears countered stubborn pockets of the poison_, it really is too much to expect my brain to still work at this point right?_ He thought to himself petulantly. "I don't…wait your blood?" Harry attempted to force himself upright and focus on the voice through blurred vision but could see nobody and rapidly slumped back.

"Child calm yourself; your deductive skills, or possibly healthy paranoia, seem in order anyway." It laughed darkly "I mean you no harm, had I meant you harm I would have aided the abomination that held the title of Heir." The voice did not really seem human now that Harry considered it, it reminded him of a cross between a ghost and the Basilisk, he shuddered at the thought, _mind you if this is who I think it is then a ghostly Basilisk would suit!_

"Since you would appear to have me at a disadvantage and I'm rather in need of aid would you please show yourself…Lord Slytherin." Harry responded deciding to be upfront with his suspicions since there wasn't a lot he could do at this point except talk. Even if he had any energy left and was in full control of his body, both the sword and his wand were beyond his reach.

His 'shock and awe' limit having already been exceeded for the day, Harry barely even flinched as the huge stone statue from the centre of the chamber heaved itself noisily to its feet, took three strides towards him, then hunkered down on its knees to look at him. "Well done my little Heir!" The statue chuckled "well done indeed, a most un-Gryffindorish response if I may say. Now I don't believe I can be of much physical assistance to you since this form is not meant for either fine manipulation or delicacy, however" the statue stood clapping its hands and began pacing the chamber with its hands clasped behind its back; " however I can be of use, I hold much knowledge which will be helpful to you in the coming years."

At Harry's almost automatic squawk of protest it made a dismissing gesture with one hand. "Oh not the dark arts. Other than the fact that I was an Arab and therefore was literally dark and that I had the Beast speech which Europeans considered a sign of the devil, I never did hold with them." The statue shuddered, its stone clothes rippling strangely. "The things those magics do to your body, slowly poisoning the mind until your decisions and emotions are not your own. No!" Again the statue made a dismissive wave "I am still tied into the wards and have a connection to my bloodline, so I know some of what has befallen you and hopefully can advise you, even teach you, should you chose."

"But!" Harry spluttered confused and feeling rather as if somebody had yanked a rug from beneath his feet "But you're supposed to be some pure blood fanatic, and how can I be the Heir, Dumbledore... (Harry paused to considered his rather ambiguous feelings on the absent headmaster).. Dumbledore said my Parseltoungue was from Voldemort or Tom whatever his name is." He continued slowly.

"Well, I can't think of a polite way to say this, but he lied child. If you consider his statements and actions, in light of the few independently verified facts, he appears almost pathologically unable to tell you the full truth. Now…" Again the statue gestured, it seemed to be a personal habit "now whilst you WEREN'T the Heir, you were the next in line. Riddle (the name was said with distaste) was from a VERY inbred line the Gaunts and he is, or was, the last of them. Your mother's line was the secondary, and the only remaining, line having gone dormant in the 1600s, because of the Squib inheritance problems and the fact that the line is patriarchal. You would not have been eligible as Heir until you reached your majority at 16, provided Riddle had not returned to a body before then. However you have now defeated him personally on three occasions, and, as you will learn in arithmancy, three is a very significant number magically. What that means for you is that I have been awoken from my slumber to judge an issue of primacy between warring factions off my line. Riddle's disembodied and fractured state means that, despite his bloodline'scurrent primacy and his own greater age, I may choose to pass my house to a more appropriate Heir whom has proven worthy. That Heir would be you Harry."

The statue was now totally still, looking at down at Harry with an odd hopeful/fearful expression whilst it waited for his response.

"That Heir would be you Harry"

_Come on child use the brain I KNOW you have and let me help you, I would not have that filth pollute my name further. _Salazar thought remaining outwardly patient; sensing that attempting to influence the boy's choice would not end well.

_What have I got to lose? He's right if he wanted me dead, I would already be, if he wanted to bring back Voldemort, all he had to do was move the diary, if ,like Binns said, the records of Hogwarts founding are so incomplete that we don't even know the date, how true are the accounts? After all the 'Boy-Who-Lived' rubbish is wildly inaccurate and it only happened eleven years ago._ Harry's thoughts were spinning wildly from one tangent to another. _He says he can help me, teach me; if I'd known anything useful about the wizarding world I'd have turned the diary in immediately, if I'd known more we wouldn't have followed those damned spiders, if I hadn't been so ignorant maybe Hermione wouldn't be petrified._ Here his thoughts spluttered to a halt "What was the Basilisk about? I can accept that you weren't dark and that you hate Riddle, but why was a thousand year old monster in a school if not to 'cleanse the unworthy'?" Harry questioned looking up at the statue and managing to lever himself into a sitting position.

The statue sighed "She was safe when I was here. She was supposed to be a guard for this place kept in magical hibernation, only to rouse in defence of the school. But I was forced out whilst she was quite young and the spell work incomplete and so she was not fully asleep and grew hungry and alone, and finally she met a speaker and an Heir who was quite mad and the last off her sanity slipped." The statue shook its head sadly _my poor pet_ "You will note that nobody died? She had enough mind left, and my first spells were complete enough, that she could not kill a student even in defence of the school. She could only petrify one under Hogwarts' protection."

Just then Ginny murmured and shifted slightly, her unconscious state lightening. Harry wasn't sure why, but he didn't want anyone to know about this conversation, not yet anyway _maybe that has something to do with the way they always judge me. Even my friends act scared when I speak snake and they thought I was going mad; the teachers certainly haven't supported me or listened fully_. Regardless of the reasons he wanted this finished before Ginny woke, taking a deep breath and standing upright painfully he made his decision _after all, the hat said Slytherin would help me, perhaps this is more literal but it shoudl work_. "Alright, I accept your offer. Please will you Salazar Slytherin take me as your Heir and teach me that I might protect myself and my friends redeeming our bloodline." The formal words seemed to flow from some internal well as soon as he made the decision.

"Wonderful!" Salazar clapped his hands, looking disturbingly like a happy puppy for a thousand year old, giant statue, of a middle aged wizard. "Now you need to hold your wand and, since we haven't much time until the young maiden wakes, I will hasten to urgent matters" Slytherin explained glancing nervously at Ginny's stirring form. "Three times have you defeated my unworthy Heir to the loss of his life or chance of rebirth, so, as required of my by the Old Magics, I have stood in judgment of your lives and hearts and find him wanting as my Heir. From this day forth Thomas Marvolo Riddle also known as Lord Voldemort is cast from the line of Slytherin, all rights and magics originating there shall be denied to him. His mantle as Heir shall be taken up by Harry James Potter; by right of conquest and right of blood now Heir of Slytherin, may all of the rights and duties of my bloodline pass to him, So Mote it be." Salazar proclaimed looking to Harry who whispered, prompted by that same instinct "By right of conquest in defence of my life I accept the mantle of Heir of Slytherin and swear to uphold the values of this most noble line, So Mote it Be."

As the magic swirled around them sealing the oath Harry felt a sense of belonging settle softly over him, and sighed in relief that at least some of Slytherin's statements had been true. "Welcome to the bloodline my Heir." Salazar smiled softly, "I think we have 10 to 15 minutes to work with before you need to take the young lady back up to the main castle. Firstly I have to caution you not to do magic if you can help it, or to have any cast upon you; between the venom, tears and oath your core is extremely unstable, but should quiet down within 24 hours. Secondly, could you grab the sword please?"

Harry looked a bit oddly at his new patriarch, and stowed his wand in his jeans thinking absently _there has got to be a better way of keeping this safe_. With a mumbled "sure" he walked unsteadily towards the huge corpse and bracing himself against the lower jaw, yanked the sword out of the creature's mouth, stepping back hastily to avoid any splatter. As he examined the sword more closely Harry admired the beautiful rippled steel, and gem set guard; looking closely at the intricate embellishments he thought he saw a name and perhaps further writing. Using a piece of his much abused robe he began to clean the sword _after all it did save my life, least I can do is clean it_ he thought whilst rubbing more determinedly at the words. Suddenly the words became clear, seeming to glow slightly and Harry read them curiously, unconsciously reading aloud.

"Through daring, nerve and chivalry, my Gryffindor Thou art.

Godric Gryffindor"

The words seemed to glow brighter as he read and several scenes flashed through his head.

_-He was running towards the sound off a scream, jumping on the back of an enraged troll with no thought but to save Hermione, a girl he barely knew and didn't like.-_

_-Gryffindor house turning against him whilst he refused to explain the rule breaking and betray Hagrid's trust.-_

_- Fighting through many challenges to protect the stone.-_

_-Facing a deadly monster with no thought but to save Ginny, a girl he barely knew when the adults responsible had fled.-_

In accompaniment to this he vaguely hear Slytherin's explanation "Godric left no Heirs of blood, but his artefacts will pick Heirs of magic; again child I suspected that you had proven your daring, nerve and chivalry 3 times within the school grounds. When you were able to pull the sword it was a test to see if you would wield it with honour. That you can read those words means the sword has chosen you." Harry tuned back in as the scenes stopped flashing before his eyes, there was something he needed to do. "You will find a single sharp point on the guard, prick your finger and allow a drop to fall on the words, the sword will recognise you as a champion of Gryffindor and you may call for it at any time."

As Harry followed the instructions the sword glowed briefly and then disappeared, but Harry barely noticed as he felt the knowledge of how to use the weapon download itself directly into his brain. _I can't use most of this yet, but I will practice and be stronger, and the next time the universe decides it has it in for me at least I'll have teeth! _He smiled grimly at the thought and then notice the absence of the sword "Where..?"

"It went back to the hat. It wouldn't do to have our meddling Headmaster find out about this now would it?" Salazar questioned softly. "After all he might decide it interferes with his plan for you and try to find a way to stop the summoning, although I do not think that he could."

"But what do I tell him, he always seems to know everything and he's bonded to Fawkes," Harry nodded to Phoenix now perched on the statue beginning to panic "I can never lie to him successfully!"

"Its alright child, Harry calm down, this is the chamber of Secrets and as such, knowledge of it is protected. He can't read it from your mind, you can't be drugged to tell more than you wish and unless one is a speaker they can't ever remember the details well enough to find the entrance. Fawkes would not betray one he considered worthy of healing, and Dumbledore cannot speak to him anyway."

"He can read my mind? And drugs? Oh I'll bet it's in those damn lemon drops. So what am I going to tell them all? I don't think we want it to get out that I AM the heir of Slytherin?" Harry was feeling more than a bit sick that people could rummage about in his head without him even noticing.

"Well one of the skills I intend to teach you is a Slytherin bloodline trait, I'm sure we can teach you the art of fully blocking your mind, known as Occlumency, but my method makes your mind…slippery?...it twists and turns and allow you to push irrelevant thoughts in front of the relevant ones without it being obvious. But for now we must rely on the chamber's magic."

Ginny began to mummer in her sleep and the statue returned to its original position with one last but of hissed advice. ~Remember Harry cunning and resourcefulness mixed with bravery and daring; do not speak of me, question what you can without looking suspicious of your Headmaster. Avoid looking him or Snape in the eyes when you have something to hide, and sneak down here without telling your friends when you can, the portraits may be watching you. Good luck and God bless~

Ginny moaned and began to sit up "Harry, what? Oh no Harry it was me, I'm going mad" and before Harry could think of anything to say she burst into distraught sobs.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I am not and never shall be JKR and therefore do not own Harry potter. I do however look like Harry and Hermione's love child….

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: If you haven't noticed I've responded to a review by merging chapters 1 and 2, so if you think you've missed something, you have also what do you think of the magic of the chamber? I figured it was literally a place for making secrets, dunno if I've seen that idea before.**

Oh and this is _thoughts_ and ~Parseltongue~

Chapter 2: Seeking Answers

As Ginny continued to sob inconsolably on the floor Harry crouched patting her on the back awkwardly and mumbling platitudes. "It's alright Ginny, it wasn't really you. I mean your only 11 and he's Voldemort yeah? Come on, we've got to let your mum and dad know you're alive." Harry tried desperately to think of something else he could say to get her moving; _great I can handle monstrous snakes, and talking statues but not crying girls_. Looking vaguely around the chamber as if searching for inspiration he picked up the sorting hat, dusting it absently when his eyes alighted on Fawkes. "Could you help me out here please?" He mouthed over Ginny's shoulder _if Hedwig understands me Fawkes should_.

For a minute he thought he was going to have to carry her out of there, despite the fact that he was about her height and in worse condition physically; but Fawkes had, evidently, divined his meaning and flew over singing his calming song. As the wonderful bird sang Ginny's frantic sobbing reduced to hiccoughing and a watery smile, "Harry, you found me, you saved me? Oh thank you!" She then threw herself at him and proceeded to cry on his shoulder making the already pained boy sway on his feet.

"Err you're welcome?" Harry patted her on the back awkwardly a few times, but she clung on fiercely when he attempted to disengage _being hugged might actually feel nice if my whole body didn't HURT_. Seeing no immediate respite from her affections Harry prattled on feeling rather awkward "Ron's stuck on the other side of a cave in. It was really both of us that came to get you, didn't realise what the diary was until it told me." Harry blushed, feeling dim, even he should have been suspicious about a thinking book that 'conveniently' knew about the camber. "Hermione figured out about the basilisk before she was petrified." He waved a hand in the direction of the corpse and Ginny gasped finally letting him go.

"Oh Merlin it's huge! I never did directly see it, and everything is kind of hazy, how did you survive? I'm so sorry Harry, do you hate me?" This last was said in a terrified whisper.

"No!" Harry responded forcefully. "Like I said before IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT! Now stop thinking about it and let's get out of here, I really could do with a pain potion then sleeping for a week." With that he grabbed her wrist and began towing her towards the exit, hissing ~close~ to the doors as he went.

Fairly quickly they found themselves back at the cave in where Ron was still dedicatedly clearing a hole. "Ron, we're back, we're OK, I killed the basilisk, and beat the heir and Ginny is fine! How's things on your end mate?"

"Harry? Oh thank Merlin you're alive, nearly at the time limit mate!" Harry could hear something that sounded suspiciously like tears from the other side. "Lockhart's a complete write off! My wand really did a number on him, but I've made a hole and you're both so ruddy small I recon you can wriggle through."

Harry insisted that Ginny go first, and then squirmed through himself, it was a bit tight but then he was out. Ron hugged him suddenly and let go embarrassed. "Merlin I have never been more afraid in my life! Thought I'd lost you mate, thought I'd lost you both and I was gonna have to tell everyone about how I failed my best mate and little sister." He sniffed loudly "So how in Merlin's name are we getting out of here?"

Fawkes took that moment to swoop through the gap and wave his tail feathers at them "I guess he'll take us?" Harry ventured uncertainly _Professor Dumbledore did say something about lifting immense loads_. "D'you recon we could just leave him here" Harry said jerking a thumb over his shoulder at Lockhart and grinning.

"Nah mate, it's what d'ya call it, poetic justice? Hermione would know, he'll be famous, but for all the wrong reasons. Serve the ponce right once we tell everyone what he said and what he tried" Ron smirked evilly. "Do you really think that bird can carry us though, I guess we could go one by one and Ginny could go first?"

Fawkes made a sound a disagreement and again waved his long tail-feathers at the group. "I think he wants us all, alright Ron you grab on, hold Ginny I'll hold you Gin and Professor, Professor?"

"He means you, you daft git" Ron interrupted.

"Er, yes hold onto me, right, off we go!"

As Fawkes transported them up the tube they felt a strange sense of weightlessness and were subjected Lockhart prattling "it's just like magic." Soon enough however they arrive back in front of the sinks, in Myrtle's bathroom, where she was eagerly waiting for them.

"Oh you're alive." Moaning Myrtle sounded disappointed.

"No need to sound so upset" Ron responded angrily walking towards the door.

"I just thought, if you had died Harry, you could have shared my toilet with me" this last came out in a rush and her cheeks darkened.

Harry hadn't known a Ghost could blush, "Ummm thanks Myrtle, I think I would have moved on though." Thinking hard Harry wondered if there was a way to make the poor ghost feel better, _after all she was helpful_, that might benefit him. "Myrtle, you said you died because you were in here crying thanks to bullies, and you came back to get revenge; well the same thing nearly happened to Hermione ion our first year, except I heard where she was and me and Ron got there in time. Is that right?"

"Yes!" She sobbed, "but now they've all left and I'm STUCK here, in this stupid toilet all on my own." She fled back to her stall crying.

Harry licked his lips nervously, not wanting to agitate the fragile ghost further. "Well, I had an idea about that." He paused until she sniffed and sobbed "what is it?"

"I thought maybe you could keep an eye on people like you and Hermione," Harry glanced at her nervously and was thankful to see a spark of interest. "You could listen to gossip and keep an eye on the girl's loos to find people being bullied, then you could keep them company, and maybe go to their house ghost or head of house or the prefects. You would get out of here more often and get to talk to the other ghosts, what do you think?"

"I, I'll think about it Harry. Thanks for caring." She sniffed again and hugged him, her ghostly arms making him shiver violently.

"You're welcome Myrtle, I'll pop back in to see you and we can talk more in a couple of days OK?" _That gives me and excuse to be down here later_. "We had better get to the infirmary guys."

Myrtle waved them goodbye forlornly and they left the bathroom following Fawkes along the corridors tiredly. Harry's legs felt leaden as he trudged wearily along barely registering that they were headed for McGonagall's office rather than the infirmary. As the students trudged wearily past, the portraits ran excitedly from frame to frame whispering to each other, but only Ron had the energy to notice, and Lockhart merely commented "Amazing they move!" When they stopped outside the door Harry yelped mentally and glared at Fawkes, _you damn well know I don't want to deal with this yet you ruddy bird_ he growled mentally still glaring. Sighing in resignation he raised his hand and knocked wearily on the door, obeying the call of "come in" he opened the door and the bedraggled quartet straggled in.

McGonagall's shocked cry of "Mr Potter, Mr Weasley, Proff.." was cut short as a familiar plump redhead rocketed across the room and engulfed her children in a bone-crushing hug. "Ginny, Ron, oh Ginny, how? I thought you'd died!" Whereupon she burst into tears looking between the two of them and kissing Ginny repeatedly, as if checking she were solid.

For his part Harry just sank onto the nearest chair with his pile of artefacts on his lap, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands trying to ward of sleep. He felt a brief pang for his lost parents, as he saw Mr Weasley move to join the family hug, rubbing a hand slowly over his wife's hysterical shoulders; however he wasn't sure if he wanted any part of the infamous bone crushing Weasley hugs. _I just know we'll be here for ages before I can sleep and Madam Pomfrey will want to poke and prod me relentlessly. Honestly it will prove every suspicion I have about their level of concern for me if they allow me to continue speaking for more than 20 minutes or after my voice first breaks_. He could see the Weasley's were getting themselves under control and McGonagall's intense glances kept getting longer and more curious as she stared at his filthy robes along with the hat in his hands. Then the door was flung back and Headmaster Dumbledore walked in trailed by a ranting Malfoy. _Surprise, surprise he's back. And with such convenient timing, no need to do the work but he sure will get the credit!_ Harry thought angrily as he heard the end of Malfoy senior's pronouncement.

"…doing Dumbledore, I will see you never reside in Hogwarts again. A student has Died, a pureblood no less, no, no you should have shut the place down before it was too late."

Harry saw Dumbledore's eyes twinkle as the landed upon the still silently weeping Ginny "Died have they Lucius; which student was that again?"

Too distracted by his contempt for his foe to spot the trap, Malfoy continued "You know very well whom, the young Miss Weasley was taken to the chamber 'her bones shall lie in the chamber forever' or some such, now I doubt the Weasley's appreciate your false forgetfulness." Malfoy waved vaguely at them not really taking in just which children they were comforting.

"Ah yes Miss Weasley, well as the young Miss Weasley is right there, I do think her death may have been an exaggeration? I dare say she has had an ordeal, but it seems once again help was provided at Hogwarts for those who asked it, and the school is, once again, quite safe." Dumbledore flashed a menacing look at Malfoy over his glasses before continuing "which rather begs the question of how she came to be in danger in the first place and how she was saved does it not Lucius."

Malfoy spluttered before barking "Well, out with it girl!"

Ginny started at the sound then tearfully began her explanation for the safety of her mother's continued hug. "There-Sniff- there was a diary, it just appeared in my school books after we left Florish and Blotts, and I thought you had bought it for me to be a friend at Hogwarts. Sniff. When I wrote in it, it wrote back. Then the chamber was opened and I started having gaps in my memory, and I was scared and tried to throw it away –Sob- but I always woke up with it back in my book bag, and I COULDN'T speak of it! Then today I found myself I a kind of haze and woke up in this huge dungeon decorated with snakes and there was this ghost thing coming out of the diary –Sniff- and he said he was the Heir of Slytherin , and that he thanked me for pouring the gift of my heart and soul and LIFE into his diary so that he could leave and that I would never wake again – sob- and then it all goes black until I woke up and Harry was there with a dead monster and a broken book!" Ginny began to sob again in earnest "Am- Sniff-, am I going to, -Sob- be expelled? " She wailed.

"Oh Ginny, what have I always told you about magical artefacts 'if you can't see where it keeps its brain?'" Mr Weasley questioned.

"'Don't trust it'. Yeah I know Dad, but for some reason I just had to" Ginny replied despondently.

"Now, now who knows what befuddling spells were placed on the object, after all we all know the identity off the man who claims to be heir of Slytherin; even in his school days many adults were fooled by Voldemort." Enjoying the shocked gasps the Headmaster continued "Never fear you will not be expelled for this, after all it was not you that was responsible." Dumbledore beamed at them all before turning to Harry. "Now Harry my boy would you care to enlighten us further?"

Couldn't ask Ron could he? After all eh was only there for most of it, and I'm only clearly hurt and tired, no let's make bloody Harry Potter the centre of attention whether he wants it or not. Refusing to show his resentment on his face thanks the years with the Dursleys, Harry projected the image of a child eager to please and slightly nervous about rule breaking asked an innocent question. "of course Headmaster, but how did one of Vold.. (Harry saw them flinch)-I mean –You-Know-who's school books end up in Ginny's books. The only person who went near them was Mr Malfoy and he got in a fight with Mr Weasley" Harry questioned innocently not missing Dobby signalling between the book in his hands and his master.

"Sadly we may never know Harry" Dumbledore responded glancing obviously at Mr Malfoy. "But if you could please continue the explanation?"

"Off course sir." Harry replied getting to his feet, _now THIS is the dumbest idea I've ever had_, and continuing "this is the diary" he said as he walked unsteadily towards Minerva's desk, then 'staggered accidentally' into Malfoy's pristine silver robes 'sadly' smearing them in the grease, blood, ink and general filth, that his had acquired in the chamber. "Oh no I'm so sorry sir, I'm barely on my feet as it is." He apologised, looking pointedly between Malfoy's robes and Dobby, whilst hoping both would respond as expected, then continuing to the desk.

Meanwhile Malfoy looked livid, rapidly turning an interesting shade of purple he stripped of his outer robe and all but pushed it into Dobby's arms "here elf take this! Now.." but he never got the next words out. Dobby's ecstatic grin froze him in place as his brain caught up with his words "No! I meant.." but he was interrupted by the elf's proclamation "Master has given Dobby clothes! Dobby is free of the Malfoys FOREVER!"

Malfoy's brain rapidly processed the price of this loss, and decided to assign the blame to the most appropriate place; obviously it hadn't been his fault, it must have been Potter's. Turning towards Harry he raised his want shouting "You've cost me my servant boy!" His spell however was absorbed by a suddenly raised shield and he found several wands pointed at him, as well as his former elf standing in front of the brat- who-didn't-die. About to beat a hasty retreat he was dragged to the fireplace by an irate McGonagall who screamed at him "raising a wand to one of my students! I'll have you of off the board by the end of the week, now out, out!" She threw powder into the fire causing it to turn green and threw Malfoy in after it, shouting "Malfoy Manor" as she did so. Harry took this momentary distraction to wink at Dobby and mouth "talk to you later?" before attention could return to him.

"OK, so this all started when I didn't receive any mail over the summer, and it turned out that a house elf was stealing it trying to stop me from coming back to Hogwarts….and then I started hearing this voice in the walls, I told Ron and Hermione, but hearing bloodthirsty voices isn't EVER a good thing and I didn't want to be expelled….I shouted at the snake to stop and leave him alone, I didn't know what Parseltongue was and I didn't realise I was speaking it… we thought the heir was Malfoy, but heard him talk to Crabbe and Goyle and said he wished he knew…then I went in to talk to Myrtle and find out why she was upset but all there was, was this blank diary…Ginny tried to talk to us a few times and seemed off, but Percy said she just wanted to tell us an embarrassing secret of his…were visiting Hagrid to ask about the memory but he said it was an acromantula and that they lived in the forest now… snuck off to see Hermione and found a note in her hand, she had figured it out on her own…all petrified because they never saw it directly, then thought it uses the pipes, we know someone recently dead with no marks on her, what if the murdered student from before was Myrtle…voice from the pipes…Lockhart tried to obliviate us and run like all off the people he stole his books from…ghost thing over the diary called himself Tom Marvolo Riddle…very interested in me…called the Basilisk, and I said that you never truly left Hogwarts then Fawkes was there, he was brilliant, eh saved me."

Harry paused to pet the beautiful bird and hoped Ron didn't say anything to conflict with his slightly altered version of events, _they don't need to know about the spiders or the pollyjuice. Sad thought it is to have my suspicions confirmed, it's been nearly 40 minutes, my voice is hoarse and I keep coughing and swaying slightly and the can't think to give me some water? Bastards._

Resentfully he continued his tale "He went for the eyes…this sword appeared out of the hat, and I jammed it through the roof of the basilisk's mouth when it lunged at me, but its fang went through my arm." Harry waved at his tattered sleeve and newest scar "I could feel it start to burn but Fawkes healed me, he dropped the diary on my lap whilst Riddle was gloating and I just stabbed it, with the fang, oh yeah here that is." He said thumping it down on the desk "the sword had gone when I looked so I guess it's back in the hat now, who's was it and why did the hat give it to me Headmaster?" Harry wondered if he would hear the truth.

"I don't know my boy, perhaps you were temporarily Hogwart's champion." He smiled beatifically at Harry "do continue."

"Well, that's about it, Ginny woke up, we crawled through the hole Ron made, and Fawkes brought us up. Oh, and Lockhart seems to have become even more useless!" Harry finished thinking _sleep, sweet oblivion_, he had been careful to regularly make eye contact when telling the absolute truth and not look suspicious when he bent it a little.

"Wonderful my boy, now Mrs Weasley you must take Ginevra to the infirmary, McGonagall will help; I just need a few words with Harry." Harry seriously considered screaming at him, but instead asked McGonagall if she could wait as he was still unwell.

When McGonagall was safely outside of the door having been dismissed from her own office, Dumbledore looked at Harry and said "Thank you my boy, you must have shown me great dedication to have called Fawkes to you. Now, is there anything you need to talk to me about, anything at all?"

Harry would have panicked except he knew the old man was just fishing, forcing himself to blush slightly he replied "um, you're welcome sir, I just remembered what you said about 'truly leaving' and that you hadn't trusted Riddle. I guess there is something though, the Dursleys, they really don't like me and.."

"Harry my boy" Dumbledore interrupted "I'm sure they like you, they are family after all, maybe your stubborn streak is the problem hummm." He looked at harry over his glasses "Now you simply must return this summer, it's the safest place for you."

"But.." Harry tried to continue.

"No, no your place is with your family; some rest and relaxation over the summer, now go and see madam Pomfrey for some rest of a more immediate sort" He smiled in a grandfatherly sort of way.

Harry could hardly be surprised by this callous attitude or wilful ignorance, it seemed to sum up the wizarding world. He appreciated the way it had got the little interview cut short_, but I wish they would stop giving me evidence of how little they truly care, I liked my illusions dammnit_.

"Ah there you are Mr Potter, come along to the infirmary with you." McGonagall chided as she steered Harry's tired body along the corridors his mind elsewhere.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but if anyone's selling the Weasley twins…?

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: I shall endeavour not to make Dumbles to 1 dimensional, I think I'm going to make him an old man who's very set in his ways(heavens know my granddad at 60 is inflexible as a wall) and was born in a different era (in a culture that is even more antiquated) so his brain is set on what was acceptable in 1700s, he's not evil, but is deliberately blind, set in his ways and utterly convinced that only he knows the right path, and that he deserves some reward for guiding people to that path.**

Chapter 3: Hospital Management

When Harry arrived at the hospital wing, he saw Ginny already in bed, rapidly falling asleep, the bottle in her father's hand explaining how and Ron struggling to escape from the next bed over.

"But Mum, I didn't even DO anything, not like I had a chance to help, so why do I have to stay?" he complained hoping she would overrule Madam Pomfrey.

"Because you HAVE hurt your hands Mr Weasley, I don't want you doing anything more until tomorrow, now stop complaining or will I have to potion you to sleep?" Madam Pomfrey responded in a voice that suggested she had had this argument to many times and was quite prepared to resort to the aforementioned potions.

Harry looked at Ron's hands which looked like he had tried to pull brambles with his bare hands; they were scraped raw, obviously from making the hole that they had escaped through. Curiously this made him feel a bit better, _Ron cares enough about me that he scraped his hands raw to clear an exit and didn't even mention it, I'm so glad that he really is my friend_. "Ron, I'd feel better if you stayed mate, Ginny might have nightmares and need you, hell I might need waking, and I'd rather it was you y'know?" Harry ventured, meaning every word off it and knowing that Ron wouldn't take care of his hands whilst they healed otherwise.

Mrs Weasley huffed and agreed "Please Ronald dear, I'm worried about Ginny, she'll be coming home as soon as the Professors allow, but I think she needs family to look out for her."

"Fine!" Ron agreed and slumped back onto the bed putting his hands into a basin that probably held a topical healing potion.

With attention diverted from the task of pacifying Ron the adults suddenly seemed to notice just who had provided the voice of reason, and see Harry's slim frame leaning against the doorway, fatigue in every line of his body, and as one began to rush towards him. Mrs Weasley came in first and dropped to her knees hugging him fiercely "Thank you, thank you, thank you! You saved her, oh thank you dear!" with that she gave him another squeeze and let go suddenly realising the filthy state of him.

"Oh dear let me get you cleaned up and..." she began to swish her wand as she spoke.

"No!" Harry shouted quickly as he remembered Salazar's warning and the odd feeling he'd had earlier when the shield spell had been near him.

She paused in her wand movement and the adults all looked oddly at him. "No don't," he continued more slowly, "when I went to clean them in the chamber my magic felt…funny. That shield cast in your office professor" he nodded at McGonagall "it made me feel really odd; I'm not sure I should have magic anywhere near me at the moment, I guess it's all the stuff in my veins?" he questioned looking at Madam Pomfrey.

"I have yet to be privy to this story Mr Potter?" She hinted privately thinking _oh God what's happened to him NOW._

"Basics are," he began ticking incidents of on his fingers "number one, a failed obliviate brought the ceiling down, so I had to sprint through that and got hit by a few small bits, that's how Ron hurt his hands by the way. Number two, fought a Basilisk with a sword and got bitten" he rolled up his sleeve again and pointed "three, Fawkes healed me with his tears and four; I destroyed a diary that said it was the heart and soul of Voldemort. Can I shower whilst Professor McGonagall gives you the details?" he really did feel filthy and didn't want to tell the stupid story twice.

"Of…" she coughed to clear her throat and continued "of course Mr Potter if, for whatever insane reason, you haven't died yet; then I don't expect you to get any worse in the next five minutes, now shoo." With that she hustled him into the bathroom pulling out towels and hospital pyjamas on the way.

As Harry climbed into the shower and tuned it on, he heard the beginning of the explanation but tuned it out in favour of being warm and clean for the first time in what felt like ages.

When Harry emerged about six minutes later looking a bit more like himself, Madam Pomfrey had a shell shocked look on her face, and there was no sign of Professor McGonagall or the Weasleys. Again Harry found her poorly concealed horror strangely comforting. _Clearly here is someone who gives a damn about me as an individual,_ he thought happily as he hopped onto his usual bed, _and isn't that disturbing, I even have a 'usual' HOSPITAL bed_!

As he did so Madam Pomfrey blinked rapidly, then seemed to collect herself, "well we will have to forgo the magical examination, but can you describe exactly how you feel?" She held up a hand to forestall his inevitable response, "if you say fine I will be forced to staple your pyjamas to that bed, in lieu of magic, until I can get the truth." She looked sternly at him "I need to know what hurts, where and how it is in comparison to earlier; if they become necessary, hopefully by tomorrow you will be able to tolerate the magic in a healing potion."

Harry contemplated his options and decided honesty was his best policy "I'm knackered, aching all over like I'd exercised hard for hours without warming up yesterday, I've been getting twitches and twinges but they are getting weaker and less often and are now only in my extremities and my magic feels restless and disturbed especially near other magic. At the moment all I want is to sleep for about a day straight." He finished smiling at her.

"Well from what has been said you were right, the various magical substances in your blood are not agreeing with your core, it should settle down to external magic soon enough within the next day or so, we will track you progress. The bad news is that it might not like you casting for a while, we won't know until we see your results over the next few days, I don't want you even touching your wand for the next 3 days." She looked at him sternly and he nodded rapidly.

"I don't want to do anything that could harm it further." He agreed hastily "but what about classes, we still have two weeks, not to mention the tests."

"Dumbledore is announcing tomorrow that classes are cancelled and those that wish may return home unless they have formal examinations to take. Now can you sleep on your own?"

"I think so, I'll call you if I haven't gone to sleep in half an hour?" he responded happily.

"Alright I'll check in ¾ or so, sleep well Mr Potter." As she turned away she thought she heard a sleepy 'you to Mam' but the poor boy looked like he was already asleep.

* * *

Having slept for around 8 hours Harry was awoken at 5am by a muttering sound and shuffling footsteps; years of living with the Dursleys making him hypersensitive to changes in the night-time sounds. Careful not to alert whatever was pacing in the infirmary to his conscious state he listened intently identifying a few over-optimistic birds, Ron's snoring, and a quite whistle which was probably Ginny before concentrating on the voice. "Mustn't wake Harry Potter Sir, but Dobby needs to talk to him? Master Harry Potter Sir needs to sleep, but Dobby must speak soon, oh dear!"

_By this point I'm almost used to being woken up by a crazed elf_ Harry thought wryly, even as he responded in a whisper "It's OK Dobby I did ask to speak later and now is a good time so that nobody knows. Just, please be as quiet as possible, we don't want to wake the others."

"Oh! Master Harry Potter Sir is awake, Dobby is sorry, but Dobby needed to talk to youse. Bad Dobby waking the good Master, but don't worry Harry Potter Sir Dobby will make sure Harry Potter Sir's Wheezy and the Girly Wheezy sleeps." The excitable elf pointed a long finger at Ron and Ginny's sleeping forms just visible in the pre-dawn light and muttered something with muffled the sound of snoring.

"It's fine Dobby really, but can you shorten the name to Master Harry or Harry Sir if just Harry is too hard for you?"

"Dobby cans be doing that, yes Harry Sir."

"Alright, brilliant! Dobby, am I right in guessing that you temporarily bound yourself to me?" He asked smiling. Harry had researched house elves a bit since a demented one was 'helping' him, but he wasn't sure how much was wizarding myth and how much reality.

"Yes Master Harry." Dobby looked sheepish "Dobby is a bad elf, but Dobby needed a wizard, Dobby must decide to be a Hogwarts elf or be findings a new master very soon, Dobby only has 13 hours from the bond breaking!"

"That's great, I wasn't sure if you really needed to be bound so I didn't offer immediately, but Dobby would you like to be my elf?" Harry couldn't think of anything more useful than an insanely loyal elf that could get through the wards at Privet Drive if his relatives decided to repeat the 'no food and no bathroom' rules off the previous summer.

Dobby's enormous eyes filled with tears and he beamed "Yes Master Harry! Dobby would be likings that very much, which bonding is we using?"

"I couldn't find anything on the bonds when I looked, but do you know what the Potters used? I want a bond that gives you as much most freedom as possible and doesn't make you punish yourself. You have been so loyal to me, I consider you one of my few friends not a slave or a servant even if you do need to serve to earn your magic." Harry had put allot of thought into the house elf situation once he had found out about them, especially with the way the Malfoys treated them. He hoped someone in the Potter family had too; after all, his mother had been muggleborn and was unlikely to have appreciated apparent slavery, but he didn't know if his parents had even had an elf.

"Yes Master Harry the Potters had special bonding ritual, most of the truly Ancient Noble houses did, Dobby thinks it does what master Harry wants, and Dobby would get Potter elf history if Master Harry used it. Dobby thinks it is a good bond, and lets Dobby serve his Master better, Dobby will fetch a copy." With a pop the elf disappeared.

He reappeared shortly and handed Harry a scroll which he skimmed and nodded "this is perfect thank you Dobby, are you happy with it?" At the elf's nod he held his wand and put one hand on Dobby's head as the elf kneeled, the passive magic would hopefully cause little disturbance to his core, and began to recite. "I Harry James Potter Heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Potter do accept Dobby as elf to the House of Potter, pledging magic for service, loyalty for loyalty and friendship for friendship, for so long as he lives or my line continues, So Mote it Be."

A golden glow with hints of green from Harry's core settled over the elf as he responded "I Dobby House Elf accept service to the Ancient and Noble House of Potter binding myself to its Heir, Harry James Potter, pledging Service for Magic, loyalty for loyalty and friendship for friendship, for as long as I live or the line continues, So Mote it Be." The golden glow extended to cover Harry then flashed and disappeared.

"Wow, that unsettled my magic less than I thought, probably another day until it's completely normal thought" Harry muttered to himself. "So Dobby I don't want anyone to know about this yet, you're my hidden ace against being sent back to the Dursleys. So I guess you need somewhere to hide and to only come to me if I'm in real danger or nobody can detect you. I suggest you use the Chamber of Secrets if you can get access, you should know the secret because of the bond yes?" At Dobby's affirming nod Harry continued "Great! The main job that I have for you is to find out what you can about the current state of the Potters. I didn't know it was one of the Ancient houses until you said, so I suspect my attempts at finding my history have been monitored and misdirected, find out what you can without risking yourself or detection."

"Yes Master Harry! Dobby understands and he cans be doing that's, Dobby will keep you safe but quietly. Dobby will look for the Potter properties and Potter history, but careful, careful, checks for wards and sneaky spy magics." Dobby was positively beaming with this first assignment, his master trusted him, needed him, the great Harry Potter wanted Dobby; he would have made a huge fuss, but the master had asked for quiet.

"Wonderful, thanks Dobby, you're the best. I'm gonna sleep now, m'tired again." With that Harry rolled over and hoped to sleep until, lunch.

"Sleep well Master Harry" Dobby murmured, he tucked Harry in, checked that everything was as it had been when he arrived, and removed his spells then disappeared to do some snooping.

When Madam Pomfrey checked on her patients at 6 she was glad to see that all were asleep and the monitoring spells showed none had woken during the night.

* * *

When next Harry woke it was nearly 4 and there was nobody in the wing except Madam Pomfrey, whom he could hear busting around in a corner. The beds that had been screened of for the petrified students were empty, as were Ron and Ginny's, so he assumed all was well and that Madam Pomfrey was working to restore her domain to its normal pristine condition, after the flood of well-wishers. Speaking of which when he looked on the table next to his bed for his glasses he saw a pile of cards and some sweets wishing him well. _I'm not touching that pile until I'm sure the twins haven't pranked anything, _he thought remembering the toilet seat from first year, which had been charmed to hang itself round his neck for 2 hours, and put on his glasses.

Madam Pomfrey bustled over, her normal uncanny ability to detect a patient's state of consciousness once more unimpaired. "It's good to see you awake Mr Potter; although under the circumstances, sleep was undoubtedly the best cure. It is the afternoon of the day after your little escapade, for your information, now how are you feeling." She pinned him with a glare that reminded him of last night's statement concerning the word 'fine'.

"Better." He responded slowly, moving a little in the bed to test his limbs "the aches are gone and I haven't felt and twitches yet although this arm is a little stiffer than normal" he showed her his freshly scared forelimb. "Not sure about the magic, should I try or do you…?"He trailed of questioningly.

I shall, I need to sterilise and seal these beds anyway; so I shall work down the row towards you, and you can tell me when, and if, the magic affects you, if you feel nothing by the one next to you I will try something affecting your clothes, then a diagnostic. Ok?"

"Sounds great Madam Pomfrey, thanks, sorry to be a bother" he ducked his head embarrassed_, I hate being in the hospital wing and getting in peoples way_.

"Nonsense Mr Potter, you did just save the School from a XXXXX class monster yes? One that wasn't very good at discriminating between targets, thus preventing the closing of the school and my place of work. Oh and off course, prevented the return of the most feared man in modern Europe mustn't forget that, I think I can handle slightly unorthodox diagnostic methods. However" she looked at him sternly, although her mouth was twitching in amusement "however, I would prefer it if you would TRY to end up hear less next year. One of these days I'm going to give in and put a plaque over that bed. "

"I shall try." Harry promised amused and already feeling less of a burden, if he looked at things from that perspective he had done rather well for a completely half assed plan.

"Oh and before I forget, yourself and Mr Weasley have been given the award for special services to the school, Mr Lockhart has been sent to St Mungos and is awaiting criminal charges and Miss Weasley appears to be fine after her near draining, but I have recommended she see a specialist mind healer. Madam Pomfrey sighed at the end of this.

"Can the Weasleys afford that?" Harry questioned, guessing the reason for the sigh.

"The initial session yes, but if she needs follow ups I doubt the ministry will cover it" she responded sadly.

"Well maybe we can sell the Basilisk it has got to be worth something." Harry didn't really notice he was thinking aloud.

"That Basilisk is extremely valuable, but it is yours by right of conquest Mr Potter, however I'm sure the Weasleys would appreciate the thought" she replied smiling fondly.

"Is it? Well then I will have to harvest it give something to the petrified students, perhaps pay for summer tutoring for the lessons missed." _Hermione and the Weasleys won't like it but they shouldn't argue for too long since they need this_.

"That is very generous Harry dear; Miss Clearwater has missed a half year of NEWT prep so she would especially need the help." The matronly woman was beaming at Harry as if a load had been lifted from her shoulders.

Harry blinked at her then thought, _of course, she has been trying all year to help but couldn't until now, the amount of time lost must have been weighing on her_. Realising a pressing need Harry asked "Um, Madam Pomfrey, can I uh, go to the loo please?"

"Oh of course Mr Potter, I quite forgot, here's a change of pyjamas and a towel, wash up whilst you are in there and I will call the kitchens for some food." She added as Harry's stomach rumbled "We will test your reaction once you've washed up and eaten."

Twenty minutes later, cleaned and having demolished the enormous lunch given to him, Harry was back in bed concentrating on the feeling of his magic, when Madam Pomfrey reached the bed Ron had used about 2 meters away he felt a slight tingle across his magic and it twitched a little in reaction "I felt that Madam Pomfrey, it wasn't strong but…"

"Hummm, an improvement but not a great one, I'm afraid my estimate of three days is looking more likely possibly four. Until you stop reacting to other's magic I'm going to have to ask you to stay here, if you develop a magical allergy…" she shook her head warningly.

"Ok Madam Pomfrey, thanks for explaining, can I get something to do though? I don't think I'll be able to sleep again for a few hours yet." Harry didn't really mind being holed up in the hospital wing; he could sneak out at night to talk to Slytherin's statue more easily than from the Gryffindor common room. "If classes are cancelled along with exams I don't have any homework, perhaps I could have the first year elective course books? I don't really know what electives to take or what they are like, and Ron's opinion is mostly based around what is easiest, I mean he wants me to take muggle studies!"

She blinked at him slightly surprised then responded "I will ask an elf to fetch them, and Harry dear if you read the first introductory chapter of each, I would be glad to talk about your options and possible career paths."

Five minutes later and Harry had a small pile of text books, a mug of hot chocolate and was happily propped up in bed, with a sigh he grabbed the divination text from the top of the pile and began to read.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, TBH if it's cannon Harry I don't want him.

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: I think I may be writing Dobby as if he were Smeagol…**

Chapter 4: Misdirection

After about two hours of continuous reading Harry heard footsteps in the hallway and put down his book. He'd read almost without pause, except for a light snack about half an hour previously and was just finishing reading the first chapter of Runes, having read the introductions and first chapters for all of the other subjects. _I'm not going to be Ron's favourite person sadly,_ he thought a little apprehensive about the discussion he was going to have to have, with his best friends, about the electives, in the next few days.

He looked up and caught Madam Pomfrey's eye mouthing "they allowed in?" as he jerked his head towards the door. She nodded smiling and went to greet his friends "Miss Ganger, Mr Weasley, Miss Weasley, you may come in but for one hour only, you are to divest yourselves of all magical items, save your wands, and are not to perform ANY magic whilst in my infirmary are we clear?" She pinned his friends with a severe look.

"Yes Madam Pomfrey" came the replies and Ron dumped a few magical prank items on the table near the door, whilst Hermione shrugged of her book-bag.

As the matronly woman smiled and wandered back towards her office, Harry's friends rushed over, dragging the now blushing Ginny with them, "Harry mate, how are you?" Ron began before he was interrupted by a flying brunette frantically hugging Harry.

"Harry, you did it, you figured it out! Oh I knew you would." With that Hermione finished her tackle hug and kissed him on the cheek, then smacked him on the arm and started crying "But don't you EVER do anything that stupid again, how do you think I felt waking up only to find you unconscious in a hospital bed AGAIN!"

Harry chuckled warmly and hugged her back, awkwardly patting her on the back "it's OK Hermione, I will be fine, just can't do magic for a while, it's not like I can in hols anyway."

"But that's not the point, you could have died" she wailed and squeezed him tighter in her hug burying her head in his chest.

Harry had no idea how to deal with an emotionally overwrought Hermione, but the hug was creating a warm feeling in his chest so he just went with his gut and kissed the top of her head squeezing back "Well we did go to a teacher first…honestly Hermione, I'm OK, Ron mate your hands are healed?" he questioned causing Ron to hold them up and nod. "See Ron's fine, everyone that was petrified is fine, however " his face took on a solemn look despite the smile hidden in his eyes "I DO promise not to fight any more gigantic, magical, snakes, in previously, secret, chambers under the school, armed with only a sword, hat and magical bird, ok?"

This facetiousness seemed to do the trick and Hermione disengaged, sniffed twice, then hit his shoulder again muttering "prat, boys honestly" but she smiled and sat down in one of the chairs.

"Ow! " Harry whined "honestly here I am defenceless, already in the Hospital wing and she's beating me up" He grinned wickedly.

"Yeah well you asked for it, honestly though you are ok, right mate?" Ron replied and patted him awkwardly on the shoulder before sitting down.

"Yup!" Harry replied happily "I'm stuck here for at least 2 more days but Madam Pomfrey got me some stuff to do, so I'm good, I don't feel ill just a bit weak and achy and y'know the magic thingy."

"Ummm Harry?" Ginny piped up from where she had been standing, the three friends having forgotten about her completely "ummm I just wanted to say thankyouforsavingme, eventhoughtIwasreallystupid, andyouaremyhero, thankyou" then ran out of the Hospital wing blushing furiously.

The three friends just blinked at her departure then shrugged as Ron muttered "girls, honestly there's just no understanding them!" and Harry said bemusedly "still a fan girl then, shame." He then continued "it's good to see you guys, it's not the same without you Hermione, and Ron, I just want to say thanks mate."

"What for?" Ron looked confused.

"I know how your hands got like that mate, and I appreciate it; you must have been digging through rock with you bare hands for over an hour, so thanks, if it wasn't for you I'd have been trapped."

Ron looked embarrassed now "yeah, well you would have done it for me right? Plus it was my little sister too, so don't mention it, 'sides Madam Pomfrey fixed me up."

Harry looked at Ron sternly "Well yeah I would have, but the Dursleys have made me work till my hands were like that before and I know how hard it is to force yourself to keep moving, and we both know that neither of us were expecting to find Ginny alive. There wasn't much chance of me coming back either, so you will take the damn thank you, since the only reason I was able to leave that stupid Chamber was you digging me out, and you will let me buy you a new wand!" Harry held up his hand "ah, ah, no arguments, my crazy elf friend was the root cause of the damage, and my crazy plan let Lockhart near us, and you saved my life, sort of, I don't think I would have been safe for Fawkes to flame out with my magic like this, so I will buy you a new wand to make up for some of it , got it?" Harry attempted to look stern.

"Harry, you don't have to, but I guess if you can convince Mum, then I would really like you to, can it maybe be my birthday present?" Ron looked like he was having his usual 'charity case' issues but had realised how badly he needed a new wand.

"Sure thing, and last year's birthday to, hopefully that will let me convince your parents" Harry grinned "plus, how can you watch my back without a wand?"

"Alright I surrender! Thanks mate." Ron smiled gratefully.

The three friends proceeded to chat amiably for the remaining fifty minutes, catching Hermione up on everything interesting that she had missed. In return Ron and Hermione filled Harry in on Dumbeldore's announcement at dinner, that internal exams were cancelled and that students who wanted too could go home a week early on a special run of the express. They chatted about the sudden turnaround in public opinion regarding Harry (which got his mind rolling) and how the story of the chamber was being reported (completely inaccurately), the electives were briefly mentioned with Harry saying that he needed to research and gesturing at his books which granted him an approving look from Hermione and a disbelieving one from Ron. Then Madam Pomfrey chased Harry's friends out for the evening as it was nearly seven and they left promising to see him the next day.

* * *

"Now Harry," she said a few minutes later "if you want, we can start that discussion of the electives whilst you eat dinner, I know you won't want much what with it being so close to lunch…"

"Actually I'm starving for some reason" Harry interjected.

"Really? Oh well then, we can talk whilst you and I eat dinner, I often eat here rather than the great hall, the student body can be so…rambunctious."

Harry grinned, "That's a nice way of putting it; that sounds great if you don't mind?" he trailed of questioningly.

"Not at all Mr Potter," she continued more briskly, "now I shall order something nourishing from the elves, and find you a tray then we can talk".

After Madam Pomfrey had bustled and fidgeted with Harry's eating arrangements to her satisfaction, the two of them ate in silence for a few minutes before beginning their conversation.

"Now Mr Potter, before we begin, I just need to check that you aren't feeling any sensitivity, no magic that is making your ears hum or anything?" Madam Pomfrey asked looking downright furtive.

_What?_ Harry thought, _why ask now, unless...there are no portraits here, I thought of that, but listening spells…_"I can't sense anything, I think I felt a little uncomfortable when Ginny was in here though, perhaps she had some passive magic on her?"

"Good Harry, that's good," Pomfrey's manner suddenly became much warmer and more relaxed; "you are supposed to have a careers talk, with you head of house, before choosing your electives, as well as discussions with your…guardians. " She wrinkled her nose as she said this. "I expect, however, that given your guardians' general level of interest in your schooling, the discussion may 'accidentally' be overlooked, especially with you in here. If Professor McGonagall," Pomfrey looked quite irritated with the head of Gryffindor "should happen to remember then you will just have the benefit of two peoples opinions and experience, which should merely cover for the lack of input from your guardians, so there is no need to mention that we've discussed things. After all I'm sure as Deputy Head and a teacher she is more qualified to help the students than I am." She held his gaze intently as she said this until Harry sharply nodded to indicate that he understood her meaning.

"Thank you for taking time, out of your busy end of year schedule, to talk to me about this, after all it is likely to be 'unintentionally' overlooked. We are just lucky that there are no students in the wing, or you might not have the …time to help me." Harry responded keeping his tone casual, but trying to convey that he knew not to mention this to anyone.

"Well then I shall try not to influence you unduly, so, could I have your opinions of the subjects offered Harry," she sat back an interested look on her face.

Harry's face took on a contemplative look rather than the mask he had been wearing as he began to think aloud. "Well since I live in the muggle world, the only way that Muggle Studies would be useful, is if it were a continuation of core muggle subjects, you know the GCSEs, however it isn't. The only material in the book that I didn't know, was because it was so out of date that I'm not sure if it was correct, allot of the detail in the first chapter is wrong and it's all hopelessly, hopelessly dated."

Madam Pomfrey grimaced, "indeed, whilst not muggleborn I have studied muggle healing as a hobby and I keep abreast of the muggle world, so sadly I cannot disagree with you."

"The only way it could be useful is if the mirror image were offered for muggle borns, I'd love to take a wizarding customs, home-life and laws class." Harry agreed "Divination doesn't look appealing, Ron seemed to think it would be easy, but I don't really see the point; do you need a seer ability to use that stuff, and does it actually work?" Harry looked at the Mediwitch questioningly.

"You can have some minor success without the true seer gift in a few branches, but most of those involved druidic sacrifice and are now considered dark. Sadly at least some of the sight is required for any degree of success in divination and I can think of very few careers where the knowledge but inability to use it would be beneficial. Furthermore if you do have a weak seer gift, and trust me we would all know if you had a strong one, it would only cooperate with one or two mediums, so you would just need a tutor in scrying or omens etc."

"Thank you, the book was very vague about allot of the detail, and as I said, I couldn't really see the point." Harry nodded once before continuing "So next we have Care of Magical Creatures, that gets a maybe from me. I think I have an affinity for animals, I've been able to understand Hedwig to the point that lately I hear words from her and something akin to words from other post owls, and of course I have Parseltoungue, and then Norbert liked me more than Hermione and Ron and so does Fluffy."

"Norbert? Fluffy? What are they and how do they relate to Care Mr Potter" asked Madam Pomfrey looking concerned and angry at eh same time.

"Ummm pets of Hagrid's?" Harry evasively answered trying to squirm backwards through the pillows, _oops_.

"Yes, I guessed that much by the names, specifics Mr Potter specifics" she looked like she was losing patience.

"Well, Fluffy is the Cerberus that was guarding the 3rd floor corridor in first year, and Norbert is the dragon that Hagrid hatched in his hut." Harry answered in a rush.

"What! I cannot believe….I don't know how you manage to ever leave this infirmary Harry, it's like you're a walking disaster zone." Madam Pomfrey deflated and settled for just looking worriedly at Harry.

"I guess that's true, anyway I seem to be good with animals, like they understand me when I need them to? But I've only ever worked with Mrs Figg's cats, and well cats listen to nobody, the post owls, Fawkes and a few snakes. It's not much to go by, and I'm not sure which careers Care is needed for?" Harry decided to continue and sidestep the issue of Cerberuses and dragons.

"Well I can see your point, if you do indeed have an affinity then it is a talent worth cultivating, we can go over careers latter, but there are quite a few where it is a useful supplemental although not required, in addition to the few specialists that need the skill." Pomfrey responded allowing him to change the topic back.

"Arithmancy and Runes are both definite as long as nothing you say makes me rethink," Harry continued. "Arithmancy looked like a foundation in muggle math would really help, and my math was always way better than my literacy, I've nicked my cousins discarded books too so I'm actually a few years into the secondary school system. Mind you I bet it gets boring and has absolutely tons of homework, but I think I might be good at it, Runes and Arithmancy seem to complement each other, so I figure I want to at least try it. Runes looks…amazing, I dunno, I guess it might be a Potter thing? When I looked a the text book it just felt right, again so much work, but it's magic I can do at home! I could get a muggle repelling ward on my room and then Uncle Vernon won't be abel to come in and hit me, and Hedwig will be safe, and I could hide my school stuff so they don't lock it up." Harry was smiling happily and hadn't notice the livid look on Madam Pomfrey's face when he mentioned the Dursleys' standard treatment.

"Well," she cleared her throat, "well you're right dear, you could do those things, although probably not immediately, and I agree than Runes and Arithmancy complement nicely, they are the skills that are most useful from a generalised career route. Of course many careers just require a certain number of OWLs and NEWTs above a specific grade, or only specify a few subjects. Healing for instance, requires 8 OWLs at Acceptable level and 5 NEWTS at at least A level, including an E and an O in Charms and Potions, with the minimum level depending on the speciality. The difficulty in getting into NEWT level potions in recent years is one of the reasons Healer trainees are dropping in numbers." Madam Pomfrey blushed as she realised she was starting to ramble.

"OK, so if I want to go into healing I need to get potions tuition or learn to brew on my own at home, I really don't understand how I can be so bad at it, I'm a good cook and have excellent hand eye coordination." Harry muttered resentfully, and Madam Pomfrey looked though full.

"You, you're considering Healing?" Pomfrey asked.

"Well sure, it's one of the most amazing things wizards do, and after all the times you've patched me up? I can't say it wouldn't be a job that helps people. It's hardly the only choice, but it is one of the few I've heard of that sounds good." Harry replied surprised that she was surprised.

"Well I like that thought process, let's see what I can come up with careers wise, I think I'll just list a few favourites then give you this" she pulled a book from behind her back.

"101 wizarding careers and how to get there?" Harry read aloud.

"It's a good start, it's a bit early to be worrying to much about carers but this will get you started and help you get an idea of the grade profile and subject numbers needed. The general break down is that the most competitive or well thought of careers need straight As as the minimum at OWL level and 5 NEWTS ,which usually means at least 5 Exceeds expectations in the OWLs to qualify, although Severus requires an Outstanding for his class, and some of the less popular courses like Divination, Muggle studies and Astronomy only require a pass to continue."

"Thanks so much for helping me with this Madam Pomfrey, I think I'll read this for a bit then sleep if that's OK?" Harry asked.

"Of course Harry dear, be sure not to overtire yourself, and do your teeth and change into your pyjamas now please." She chided

Harry laughed and did as he was told, shortly he was engrossed in his book, but set himself a time limit so that he would go to sleep early turning to the first section he read 'Artificer/Artist: wizarding art is, sadly, a declining field…

* * *

Five hours later and Harry was using his Dursley honed skills to wake up and sneak out, he had called Dobby to get his cloak, its passive magic not seeming to cause him any problems, although he could sense it as a sort of hum against his own. He kept as low as he could and avoided routes with portraits where possible remembering how conveniently Dumbledore had turned up after his midnight wanderings in the past.

When he reached Myrtle's bathroom he snuck in, thankful that the door was ajar and realised that Myrtle wasn't anywhere to be seen. Unwilling to question his good fortune, he walked towards the sink and hissed ~open silently~ when this worked he thought for a second and added ~staircase?~ and emboldened by his success ~lights~ . Quickly Harry ran down the first few steps, turned around and hissed ~close silently~ and was delighted to see the entrance sealed but the stairs remained, lit and descending along the same route as the pipe had. Thankful that everyone seemed to have bought his tired and aching act, (well mostly act) he was glad that normally he escaped from the hospital wing by any means necessary, since it diverted suspicion. He was a little worried about his magical sensitivity, but figured it was out of his control, and was a decent cover anyway. Happy in the thought that he had managed to evade his various watchers, both benevolent and malign he skipped down the steps towards the meeting with his ancestor.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter etc

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: Moi, love your reviews but I can't respond to them, and I can't read all of the last one until a few days after it was posted, your questions are really helpful though, message me instead?**

Chapter five: Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance

When Harry hissed the last door open and walked into the chamber, Slytherin greeted him immediately. "Good evening my Heir, a commendable job of avoiding detection, a most remarkable artefact that cloak."

"Good evening ancestor Salazar" Harry responded bowing. "The cloak was apparently, my father's and is definitely one of my more useful tools, I was successful in avoiding detection then?"

"Not a twitch from any of the portraits, and your current sensitivity prevents the application of any tracking charm to you, or your clothes, now how are you truly feeling child?" the statue looked concerned.

"Well enough, my wand arm is a bit stiff, so I may have problems there for a while, the scar tissue I guess, the twitching has subsided now, but the ache I mentioned is real. I'm starting to think that it's growing pains, my magic is very sensitive and my core feels …odd but it think that there's more to it than just a magical allergy." Harry looked hopefully at the statue unconsciously seeking approval for his answer.

"Very good Harry!" the statue responded with a warm smile "I believe that both instances may be growing pains of a sort, the venom affected nearly your entire body, so I believe the tears that you swallowed are healing that, with the side effect of healing all other damage done to you, you have been very hungry yes?" When Harry nodded in confirmation the statue continued "I would not be surprised if, over the summer, you grow several inches and your eyesight improves."

"Really?" Harry exclaimed happily, _Merlin I hate being short, and my glasses are a pain_.

The statue smiled at his happiness, "yes really, the evidence supports my conclusions, you are nearly an inch taller already, although I would expect the rate of growth to slow after that first painful evening. There is more good news however, the magical instability I mentioned? I believe it is being misdiagnosed because Madam Pomfrey lacks a few facts, so just to test my theory, can you hold your wand?"

"You sure?" receiving a calm nod Harry complied, noting the way his wand seemed to have a hummm that harmonised with his core.

"So do you feel any more unstable than when you wore the cloak, or passed through the wards? If your magic is still unstable you should, if you don't, try casting something with a long incantation, a low level spell, just in case."

"No I don't, I can sense the wand, but nothing feels bad, alright I'll try. 'Wingardium Leviosa' hummm that felt different to before, but it felt fine." Harry said perplexed.

"Well child, prior to your healing did you ever feel like the venom had encountered a block of any kind?" Slytherin asked kindly.

Harry considered for a moment, having avoided considering those painful moments, "Ummmmm, yes! Yes, I did, just before I pulled the fang out of my arm and stabbed the diary, it dissolved about the same moment Fawkes started to cry, what did it mean?"

"Well Harry when it dissolved, as you put it, you glowed, in several different colours of magic, most of which are definitely not your own, since your bond with Dobby shows that your magic is green interlaced with gold. I believe that these were permanent spell effects, placed on you by various people, for various reasons, care to guess?" _he's making good progress, but I need to encourage him to think for himself_.

Harry looked a little sick, _there were spells on me? Multiple spells on me, what possible reason…?_ "Some might have been cast by my parents, family and child Healers, if I showed talents that need gradual release as you age, I think Ron mentioned that once, I doubt anyone would have thought to check. It's possible someone I know now has health monitoring, or tracking charms on me, for whatever purpose….ummm something to do with my mail? I've never got 'fan mail' like that ponce Lockhart, but I guess being 'the-boy-who-lived' I should have, if I do have a mail redirection, it should have been lifted, or my permission sought, when I turned eleven, that's all I can think of."

The statue beamed "very good Harry, very good indeed. From what I could see, probably all the spells you mentioned and unfortunately more." The statue looked grim "I believe from the way you talked about your Parseltoungue and the way your core is responding that you also had an ability sealed, and a power cap on your core. You ought to be able to consciously speak Parseltoungue, and I don't think that your core is currently so big because it's unstable, but because it was artificially reduced before. Furthermore, judging by the change in the way you are acting I believe someone placed an, even more illegal, mind altering effect on you. It's a little like a permanent befuddlement charm, or a magical learning impairment, I think you have had at least 20% of your brain capacity diverted. Tell me do you feel more analytical, rational, more able to concentrate, most obviously has your reading speed gone up?"

"Yes, yes it has. I got through the books today at the speed I used to go through muggle books, I hadn't really thought about it before, just assumed I was no good at magic. But it feels like the last two years have been fuzzy? In fact it altered during my shopping trip with Hagrid, I think, it think the spell was on my wand. Is my wand even my wand?" Harry looked a little lost and quite frightened.

"It's alright child, as far as the wand goes, yes I believe so, I think that you are to be Fawkes' next companion after Dumbledore, so a wand made with his tail feathers…"

"What?" Harry jumped startled.

"You didn't know? Yes Fawkes was coerced into donating the first, but gave yours freely and against his bond-mate's protests, so it seems likely that you are his next intended."

"Oh" Harry blinked, it was hard to absorb all of this information even if his mind was working properly again. "Are you sure? I mean Fawkes is wonderful, and I'm just Harry, nothing special, why would he want me?"

"Oh Harry child, if I could, I would happily leave this chamber and tear you wonderful 'relatives' limb from limb." Harry blinked, nobody but Ron and the twins had ever disliked the Dursleys before, especially not this much. "Child you are special, no listen to me, even without Riddle, without all of the feats performed here at school, you are wonderful person, you survived ten years of those 'people' and still care about others! You don't understand how rare that is, you should be a broken mess or a sociopath; that person, that caring strong person, who would jump on a troll for a girl they consider a bit of pain, is who Fawkes has been looking for. I know you want to be 'normal' because the Dursleys considered you a freak, but does that desire really come from you? In many ways your Slytherin ambition and cunning has been used to force yourself to be as average as possible, but is that what you want, or what they want? You will never be normal, not here and not with them, but that doesn't make you bad, it makes you special; an amazing unique individual, one several, different thousand year old, magical artefacts and an ancient guardian of good consider worthy. And that worth does not come from the events of Halloween 81, but from actions, such as a twelve year old facing a Basilisk, with only a sword, for a girl he dislikes, whilst the adults run around like headless chickens!" Suddenly the statue gave the impression of an embarrassed blush "uh sorry for the rant child, but NEVER let me hear you doubt your worth."

Harry was blushing furiously, but managed to stammer out a thank you and acknowledgment, his head spinning_. I, I don't know what to think, I hate standing out, but WHY do I hate it, what's wrong with being recognised positively for the things I have done, oh Merlin I think my brain might explode_. Harry's thoughts continued to run in circles, wanting to believe his ancestors words, but having difficulty accepting them at his core; slowly however, the part of him that was convinced that he would NEVER be worth anything began to erode.

He didn't even notice his thoughts starting to slow from their frantic pace until he was nearly calm and Fawkes settled on his shoulder, his continued singing explaining Harry's renewed internal equilibrium. When Harry reached up to stroke soft feathers the bird trilled happily, and Harry could have sworn he heard 'I agree with everything old stone bottom said'.

_Did I just hear words? Nah_. "Thanks Fawkes, I feel better now. Not that I'm not glad to see you, but what brings you down here in the middle of the night?" Harry knew the bird was intelligent enough to understand him, and besides, he talked to Hedwig as if she were human.

"You needed me chosen, you need a tear every day for a month, along with extra food, to heal the damage done to your body over the years." Harry heard, although the sound was superimposed over Fawkes' usual fluting trills and whistles.

"Did I just? You spoke to me yes? Why can I understand now?" Harry spluttered shocked_, actually, I think Salazar said something last time we spoke, I can't remember_…."Ancestor Salazar, explanation please?" he asked the statue, who had started sniggering at his confusion.

"You remembered that I called Parseltoungue beast speech?" at Harry's nod, the statue continued "Good, well done. Well Parseltoungue is actually a myth perpetrated by the ignorant; it is just the most common fully realised manifestation of Beast-speech. Scholars in my original home theorised that it was one of the earliest wizarding abilities, the magic gave our early ancestors the ability to speak to animals and that helped our survival. The earliest religious and magical writings, suggest that all wizards possessed the ability. It's actually quite fascinating, the study of the ways the speech can manifest…"

"Ancestor, not an academic lecture, time limited discussion, information now please." Harry ground out, before Salazar could do a complete Hermione, adding the please reflexively.

"Ooops!" The statue had the grace to look embarrassed, "sorry child, anyway the ability to speak to beasts is very common, but most wizards lack the power to do it since it is no longer the primary focus of their core. Any strong wizard however will feel more connected with animals and possess the ability to, say, talk to their post owl as if she were human? Now, in times of stress, whilst in proximity to an animal, this can manifest into an ability to communicate; it is the magic's attempt to save you from a bad situation."

"Ok so because I was communicating, in general terms, with that boa when Dudley pushed me and I vanished the glass, my magic assumed the threat came from the snake and unlocked the ability to talk to it?" Harry ventured, hoping he had grasped what his ancestor was saying and wouldn't disappoint him.

"Very good, that's it exactly!" Slytherin's constant approval continued the work of his earlier words, gradually improving Harry's sense of worth. "Now as far as Fawkes goes, he was present when you were endangered against the basilisk, and the magic couldn't understand the threat, since you could already speak to the basilisk, not that it would have done any good. It therefore started awakening the ability to talk to him, your magic is currently very sensitive and you were feeling stressed just now, yes? So, when he returned and you were again stressed, it opened the ability to speak to him. In addition to this, your ability to consciously use your power was under one of the blocks; I expect that you had begun to communicate with post owls as a child, so your parents placed a block, one that they intended to lift once you progressed beyond baby talk."

"So the reasons nobody knows about the other kinds of speech are that those with the ability don't unconsciously do it, but learn to control it, that only powerful wizards can, and that you have to be in danger from an animal before the ability becomes active? I suppose few powerful wizards are endangered by animals, because it would have to happen in the first few years of their schooling or before?" Harry concluded.

"Indeed, perhaps 5% of wizards, assuming the power levels haven't declined since my day, have the power, and the ability is no longer endemic to the population. Furthermore, most never encounter a dangerous animal in that venerable period, so can you guess why Parseltoungue is so well known, if uncommon?"

_Hummmm, why would Parseltoungue be_…"Because snakes are one of the most common dangerous animals that people encounter, and further are the most likely for a young child to escape an encounter with alive since by and large, they have no interest in humans?"

"Very good Harry." Slytherin responded.

"That's why they speakers are more common in India, Parvati said that they are more common where her parents come from and that many peoples don't think the ability dark; she said that her great uncle is a snake charmer and breeds Runespoors." Harry continued, delighted to have made the connection.

"Simply brilliant Harry, it's a delight to see your mind operate unfettered." Harry blushed heavily at Salazar's complement. "So Fawkes what do you need Harry to do?"

As he said this, Harry again heard the fluting whistling speech of a Phoenix, but this time from his ancestor, focusing on the sound he decided to try for himself. "Sorry to ignore you Fawkes, but I didn't understand what was happening, thank you for coming to see me and for wanting to help me." Again he stroked the soft feather of the Phoenix's breast, and was rewarded with trill of enjoyment.

"You are most welcome chosen, now that I know your magic will not be harmed I can flame you in and out for these meetings. Now please lie down and open your mouth, the tear must be absorbed internally to do the most good." Fawkes had a warm kindly voice, like the one he imagined a good older brother to have, and he he happily complied.

When the procedure was finished Harry immediately felt hungry and asked, "can I call my elf, I'm hungry suddenly but I don't know if it's safe…"

"Go ahead child, nobody notices elf magic, and since you are attuned, he is attuned, to the wards of the chamber, no other elf may enter. Besides I'd like the meet this overenthusiastic companion of yours."

"Dobby can you come to me please" Harry called feeling an echo of the feeling he'd had when bonding to the elf.

"Master Harry? Oh you is being hungry, Dobby can gets you something." The little elf had barely appeared before he disappeared again with a pop leaving Harry staring at the just vacated spot blankly, his mouth half open with a half formed request.

Pop. Dobby reappeared with a platter of food "Don't worry Harry sir, Dobby was not seen and the foods will not be missed. Dobby is finding foods that is good for growing wizards, you is being too small and Dobby will help." The elf said determinedly.

"Uh thank you Dobby." Harry said staring at the platter with exactly the foods he was craving upon it. It contained a huge chicken sandwich, a large glass of milk, cheese and wholemeal crackers, a sliced apple and a dessert of strawberries with cream. "You know what Fawkes is doing to help me then Dobby?" Harry questioned interested.

"Yes Master Harry, Dobby can be sensing it through the bond, Dobby will help, he leaves a note from 'Madam Pomfrey' for elves to be findings and they makes sure you is getting good foods to eats, not silly, fatty, stodgy dinner, like in great hall." Dobby looked very proud of himself and faintly disgusted at the normal student fare.

"Thanks Dobby this is brilliant, Harry declared and tucked in. For several minutes Harry ate steadily, until there was nothing left but the apple, which he sat nibbling on. Harry had been thinking over their entire conversation as he ate and ventured "so my magical allergy isn't? I can certainly feel the magic around me and I couldn't before?"

"Salazar looked pleased at this question and answered "Ah good, I had wondered. I think you may be in the early stages of developing mage sense. I am unsure if this is a side effect of the events of the last few days, or if it is an ability you possessed that had been blocked. Perhaps it is both; small children with mage sense in a magical home become overstimulated very quickly. It should develop naturally from here, all you need to do is work on analysing the different sensations you feel and eventually it will feel as natural as sight or smell. You might want to keep the ability quiet, again it's quite uncommon, perhaps 2% of magic users actually possess it, although the potential is closer to 10%. Those with the active sense are mostly older, people like wand makers and curse breakers, who develop it through their work. It's not actually a sign of a strong wizard, although many will assume so, it's a sign of being unusually in-tune with your magical core."

"Oh! Well that will be useful, I don't know what career appeals to me, but there's no way this is a bad thing. Although…." Harry developed an evil grin and sat for a minute staring into space until Salazar coughed to gain his attention. "Uh, sorry. I was just thinking, there's no reason to tell Madam Pomfrey that I don't have a magical allergy is there? Nothing she's doing will hurt me, but maybe I can use this, if I 'haven't got my ability to use my own magic back safely' then she would need to see me to assess if it's healing wouldn't she? I might be able to finagle summer visits to the castle and I would gain a chance to go through all of the subjects that I've been unable to learn. That would hide my remerging brain power, give me an excuse for being more studious, and mean that somebody will see if I'm locked in my room with no food again…" Harry muttered the last part to himself absently.

"What! Locked in your room with no food? This is worse than I thought, you can't go back there child!" Salazar exploded.

"Uh, I think I have to, the Headmaster is insistent, but maybe I can come up with something to make sure I'm safe and well, what do you think of my plan?"

"I don't like this, but your plan is good? I will think about it and see if we can come up with anything else to help…and Harry please remember, you don't deserve any of the way they treat you." Salazar responded calming down slightly.

"I know ancestor, but this year I have Dobby to bring me food, and if I can get Pomfrey to see me weekly they can't be to bad." Harry was actually starting to feel hopeful at this point.

"Humph, it is a good plan Harry, I'm proud of you. I think you should allow the spells to the bed next to you tomorrow, then to things near but not touching you, the day after, charmed bedding and clothes the day after that, and holding but not using your wand after that, we will work out a schedule for you own magic later on. This also gives you an excuse to be in the hospital wing until most of the students have left and to do a lot of reading which will explain the improved marks further." Slytherin was starting to think about the plan objectively, without the dark cloud that was the Dursleys in the way.

"Thanks, I guess I had better get back, I've been here an hour and I'm tired, this is all still covered by the Chamber's secret thing yeah?"

"Indeed it is, you can't betray yourself, be well child, sleep deep and undisturbed."

"Thank you, you too ancestor Salazar." With that Fawkes flamed Harry into the infirmary and he fell asleep almost immediately.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of JKR's work.

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: The effect of the venom and tears on Harry's scar will be addressed I promise, but not for a few chapters at least. This chapter just decided to be longer...**

Chapter Six: conversations

The next time Harry woke, it was to blinding sunlight and Madam Pomfrey humming to herself in the distillery, blinking as his eyes adjusted he put his glasses on, noticing that his sight was already clearer, as his eyes improved back towards his original prescription_. I hope the tears fix them completely, but just being able to see if I'm without them would be nice, I hate the helpless feeling that groping on the bedside table gives me_. Madam Pomfrey had evidently heard him fumbling for his glasses and had finished whatever she was doing, coming over to his bed, she greeted him "Good day Mr Potter, I hope that you slept well? How are you feeling today?"

_From 'today' and 'good day' I'm going to assume it's quite late_ "I did, thank you Madam Pomfrey, how are you?" he replied.

"I am well thank you Mr Potter, the school is always so calm when you are stuck in here, and no Potions lessons rather reduces the number of accidents for me to deal with." She grinned at him, taking any sting out of her words.

"Good" Harry smiled at her, appreciating her carefully disguised warmth. "I feel better than yesterday actually, I'm still more tired than I think I should be, and I still ache, I'm very hungry again and I have no idea about my magic." He flexed his arm and hand carefully, "my arm is still a bit stiff, no improvement from yesterday, that's all I can think of. Am I ok to go to the bathroom and get dressed?"

"I am glad that you are improving steadily Mr Potter, you may get up, just be careful and call me if you need anything, I can't use my normal health monitoring spells at the moment so I'm afraid I will have to hover a bit. It's a bit after twelve by the way." She smiled at him and ruffled his hair, surprising him with the contact, which caused him to flinch slightly out of habit. Hoping the barely perceptible reaction had escaped her notice, he ducked his head and scooted towards the bathroom thinking, _stupid, stupid, she'll probably think I'm afraid of her now, either that or she'll want to talk about the Dursleys and I really don't want to_.

As she watched him leave hurriedly, Madam Pomfrey sighed, thinking _I'm going to have to get him to talk about his home. I don't think I can get him out of there, not with the way my medical reports are being ignored, but he needs to talk about it, and perhaps we can brainstorm our way to an improvement_. _I just can't understand why nobody seems to see the signs, how could the mundane teachers ignore them, how could the neighbour, how are the Dursleys even getting around their guardian contract? Perhaps I should talk to the Goblins for Harry? No he won't want me going behind his back; I need to advise him on where he can get the facts. _ She sat there in silence only waking from her thoughts when Harry reappeared in the room fifteen minutes later towelling his hair.

"Ah Harry, feeling more awake now I daresay, I shall just call the kitchens for some food, is there anything in particular you would like dear?" she asked, her earlier preoccupation causing her mothering side to take charge.

Harry blinked in surprise, he had never been given a choice of food by an adult, "Uh, I dunno. Well, I would prefer milk to pumpkin juice; it's not exactly my favourite drink, and fruit? I could really go for an apple or pear; I'm not fussy though, thank you for asking me." Harry grimaced as he mentioned pumpkin juice, it was awfully thick sweet stuff and something about it had always seemed a little of to him.

Madam Pomfrey blinked in surprise, _could he have detected the loyalty potions that the Pumpkin juice is always laced with, normally only the Slytherins catch that. Oh well, this is a good opportunity anyway, those potions are deactivated by lipids, and the headmaster has the elves convinced they are calcium supplements so they won't add them to his milk_. "Alright Mr Potter, I shall record that preference permanently with the elves, in fact next year I shall ask them to lace it with a mild nutrition potion, you are entirely too thin." She clucked disapprovingly, _such a 'shame' that the Healer's orders would override the Headmasters in this_.

"May I speak with a kitchen elf please?" Madam Pomfrey called and was quickly rewarded with a Pop and the appearance of a female elf wearing the Hogwarts uniform.

"Thank you, who am I speaking to please?" Pomfrey asked.

"I is Pinny Miss Healer Pomy, what cans I being doing for yous?"

"Hello Pinny, I need to make some orders regarding Mr Potter's health, then ask for some breakfast for him and lunch for myself, will that be ok?."

"Is fine Miss Healer Pomy, Pinny cans be tellings other elves."

"Good Pinny, thank you. Now, Mr Potter is having problems with his magic, because of saving us all in the Chamber of Secrets, several days ago." At this explanation Harry blushed furiously and Pinny's eyes widened. "He cannot have foreign magic in contact with his, so I need you to ensure that his food does not have potions added, or charms cast on it, a simple prank could have very severe consequences. I have a list, with the foods that he needs to have more of, along with his likes and dislikes, so you can prepare his food separately to make sure it's safe, he will need more a nutritious, balanced, diet whilst he recovers anyway." She scribbled a few changes to the list and handed it over, "can you bring him a big breakfast that complies with that please, around one along with my usual lunch?"

"Pinny cans be doing that."

"Thank you Pinny you may go." Madam Pomfrey turned away as the elf vanished with another Pop and smiling brightly at Harry asked "so Mr Potter, how is your magic?"

Harry remembered last night's plan and noticed that the elf had been between the second bed from his and the next bed over before replying. "Well it doesn't feel at all disturbed, I didn't react to Pinny, but that may be because she's an elf, do you want to do the bed test again starting 3 beds from me?"

"Sound logic Harry, I shall." Madam Pomfrey replied, surprising Harry with yet another spontaneous mention of adult approval. Approval never came when he thought about things, or asked questions. Usually they ignored him, like McGonagall, disapproved of him, like his Primary teachers, or shouted at him and locked him in his cupboard, like the Dursleys. After a while he had realised that everyone wanted him to keep his head down and be as quiet and unnoticeable as possible, they were uncomfortable if they had to actually pay attention to him. He didn't think they consciously realised this, but the subconscious got annoyed with the thing that made them think uncomfortable thoughts like 'why is Dudley fat and Harry scrawny' or 'can't they buy him some new glasses', that un-comfortableness tended to translate to hostility, or wilful ignorance, depending on the person. _From the way Madam Pomfrey has been acting, she and Ancestor Salazar are both HAPPY when I think and question, they want me to stand out, I'm going to have to think about this._

Madam Pomfrey had guessed some of his thoughts by the puzzled look on his face and waited until he just looked mildly confused, before attempting to regain his attention. "Harry I shall try casting here, can you feel that?" she said before running a diagnostic on the bed's spells, and, seeing no response from Harry, re-casting the ward to prevent bugs on the third bed from him.

As he concentrated on the sensation of his magic, Harry could feel the magic, it appeared that he was more sensitive than the previous day, but since it did not feel bad, he catalogued the way the spells felt as she explained her actions, before he carried through with his plan. "Nope, so I haven't gotten any worse then." He said smiling at her.

She chuckled "good, good, I shall try the same distance as yesterday then" she continued before checking the spells on that bed. When Harry shook his head and responded that he hadn't felt that either, she re-cast the spell to prevent the sheets staining and moved forwards.

As she began to cast the diagnostic spell on the bed nearest to Harry he grimaced and said "I felt that one" so she halted the spell.

"Alright then, a steady rate of improvement, that's good, I was worried about what would happen if I needed to treat another patient, but you only need a small area clear now, and by tomorrow I hope I will be able to cast on this bed to." She glanced around rather furtively before going through with her thoughts from earlier "Harry, I think we need to talk about your home life, and the people you live with, do you think you can do that for me?"

She was saddened when he froze like a deer caught in headlights before responding "what's to talk about, they don't like me, I don't like them and nobody ever believes me."

"Well my efforts to get you removed from there last year were entirely unsuccessful, as were my efforts to have a full healers check-up of you approved, but I believe talking about it helps." She leaned forward, her worry in her eyes and touched his hand where it rested on the bed he was perching on. "Harry if things are as bad as I believe them to be, I need time to get you some things that can help, or to make plans in case I have to kidnap you to keep you safe."

She was quite serious, Harry Potter was a lovely, polite, little boy, whom everyone overlooked and failed in some way or another. She was hardly oblivious to the fact that the Phoenix tears had found more than basilisk venom to counter in his body and hoped that the few he had in his blood could heal the worst of it.

Harry giggled and replied "thanks Madam Pomfrey, for trying to help and for the kidnap thing, I certainly needed the laugh, but why can't you just do whatever scans you think are needed?"

"I am bound by my Healer's Oath not to do so without formal consent, which as a minor you cannot provide. As for the kidnap, I was entirely serious, if things are worse than I believe, or the situation deteriorates this summer, to the point where you are in danger, I fully intend to remove you and damn the consequences. Hopefully it would kick up enough fuss that your situation would be investigated properly, rather than being hidden again; I could find work as a muggle nurse in the States if it came to it."

"Th-thank you! Nobody has ever…"at this point Harry's self-control failed and he burst into tears.

Madam Pomfrey pulled him into a hug, murmuring her plans to him as she let him cry. "Hush now, I can certainly find a way of protecting your things and your owl, I can get hold of a safe place to sleep with food even. What I can't be sure about, is protecting you outside of that safe place, from the verbal ,or any physical, abuse. That's why I want to know the details Harry, I know it will be difficult, but I can't plan until I know what I'm up against."

Slowly he began to calm down; she suspected he had never been allowed to cry openly before. She glanced at the clock seeing that his friends would probably be along in the next twenty minutes or so. She rubbed his back gently and asked "Harry dear, do you think you could tell me a little more now? I will tell you about my ideas after your friends have visited, but I expect them to be here sometime after the next twenty minutes, you can eat lunch, then read, until they arrive.

Harry gave a little hiccough, then nodded wearily, he really didn't want to talk about it, but if she was willing to even think about throwing away her life here, to keep him safe, then he would tell her what he could. Hesitantly he began in a flat monotone,

**(AN: you already know this, so skip if you want)**

"I guess it started the day I was dumped on their doorstep, in the middle of the night, of November 1st 1981; with just a blanket and a note pinned to my chest, according to Aunt Petunia. She didn't want another baby, so I think she did her best to ignore the fact that I existed. I don't really remember much; just that if I cried I was in trouble, nobody ever hugged me, or patched me up if I fell over, and nothing I did ever seemed to please. I honestly thought my name was Boy Freak until I started school; Uncle Vernon was really annoyed about that. Once I had started school, they decided I was old enough to 'make up for being an ungrateful waste of space' and a 'financial burden' so they began working me like a house-elf. I've been cooking since I turned seven; if I got anything wrong then they would lock me in my cupboard. They completely hid the existence of magic and the truth about my parents, I never did understand why they punished me for things that I couldn't have done, especially since it was usually Dudley. The closer it got to my eleventh birthday, the more the indifference tuned cruel, Aunt Petunia had always slapped me with little cause, but now she didn't even bother justifying it and Uncle Vernon started too. Mostly they were just unnecessarily rough whenever they dragged me somewhere rather than intentionally bruising, but Dudley has broken bones in the past when his gang attacked me. They tried to keep my Hogwarts letter from me, even gave me Dudley's second bedroom, when the letters were addressed to my bedroom in the cupboard under the stairs. Hagrid had to come and get me, from a rock in the ocean we had fled to in order to avoid the Owls, he took me to Diagon, then they locked my stuff up when I returned. They haven't tried to put me back in my cupboard, but they lock away my school stuff, when Mr Malfoy's house-elf performed a hover charm in my living room to try and keep me from coming back this year, they found out that I couldn't do magic and locked me in my bedroom. They put bars on the window and fed me through a cat flap, they hit me less now though, afraid of what might happen I guess." Harry finished finally looking up, he had been staring at his hands, as they twisted in his lap, throughout his monologue.

When Harry looked up he saw the tears streaming silently down Madam Pomfrey's face, as she tried to keep quiet through his story, she sobbed once and pulled him towards her for another hug. This time he was able to relax into it a bit more, it was less crushing than Mrs Weasley's hugs, he felt like he could escape if he wanted, but that she didn't want him to, it was …nice. "Never, ever, think any of what they did was justified Harry, nobody deserves that, especially not a wonderful, brave, caring, little boy like you. How that man can condone this I will never understand." She said releasing him.

"I think he's like most people, he doesn't want to see, so he tries very hard to ignore it, he won't even let me finish a sentence about them." Harry replied sniffing.

"I don't care, he should listen to you, to me, it's important. Well that's beside the point I suppose, I will go and have a think whilst you wait for your friends, are you going to tell them about your electives?"

"Yes" Harry grimaced slightly, "that will be a fun conversation I'm sure, can't be helped though."

Madam Pomfrey nodded and ruffled his hair again as he sat back on the bed to read, deciding to go for some lighter reading, he picked up Care of Magical creatures and began chapter two.

* * *

When Ron and Hermione arrived nearly forty minutes later, Harry had eaten his breakfast and was nibbling on the requested apple whilst reading his book. The introductory chapter had covered the basic areas of the subject and discussed what information was most vital and how to use the index features. It had also explained the monster rating system, which whilst quite subjective, he found handy. The later chapters were split alphabetically within the danger ratings, but could be searched using the keywords in the fact-file page. He really liked those pages, they always had a wizarding photograph, or portrait, of the animal and the facts were all laid out in an easy to understand manner; the further detail on each species was usually quite dry, but still interesting, especially the spells and potions that related to them. Because of this, he was actually so engrossed in reading, about Kneazles, that he didn't notice his friends enter until Hermione hrumphed in an irritated way.

Harry thought he must have jumped about a foot in surprise, which drew an appeased grin from Hermione and a snigger from Ron that he quickly attempted to smother. "Hey guys, how are you today? I was so tired; I've only been awake for about an hour and a half!"

"We're good mate, right Hermione?" Ron replied and Hermione nodded.

"How are you Harry?" Asked Hermione, concern evident in her voice.

"I'm ok Hermione, still more tired than normal, and I'm eating like Ron, but my magic problem is getting smaller. I think it might not be fixed, even for external magic, for a couple of days, but I can hold objects with passive magic now, which is useful, though I AM wearing gloves." Harry replied, as he held up his gloved hands and put the book back on the pile.

"What are you reading mate, you look like bloody Hermione with that pile?" Ron asked incredulously.

"Ron language!" Hermione admonished absently, before the words registered "Hey" she said thumping his arm. "But yes Harry, what are you reading?"

Harry laughed amused at their antics "I've been reading up on the electives. I read the introductions and first chapters of all of the normal course books; I wanted to get an idea of what the subjects were like, rather than randomly picking one. Nobody has ever had a talk with me about what they are, or what you need for careers you see, so I asked Madam Pomfrey to get me the books from the Library."

Hermione smiled pleased and pleasantly surprise at his reasoning, "Good idea Harry, so what did you decide?"

"Thanks Hermione, well I figured Muggle studies might be the stuff we would have been doing at Secondary School, so I looked at that first, but it isn't. It might be good for a laugh from our perspective, but not much else Hermione, it's hopelessly outdated and from what I remember of our science lessons, frequently wrong. I mean according to the book Muggles still use gas lights, and cars wind up with a man to walk in front, most people still travel by horse!"

Hermione looked outraged and like she was going to jump in, in defence of the course "I'm not saying wizards understanding Muggles is bad idea Hermione, but judging by the book you and I would learn nothing, mind you we could probably take the exam to get a free OWL. It might be worth a wizard raised person taking, but only if they supplemented it with some muggle encyclopaedias or something."

Ron looked thoughtful, "so I might learn something, but some of it would be wrong? I'll have to think about it."

Hermione looked outraged "how can they allow things to be taught that are wrong!"

"I don't know, but if I had to guess, I'd say that people like Malfoy don't want word getting out about all of the things muggles can do that wizards can't." Harry reasoned hoping to calm her, after a few more dark mutterings she subsided.

"Ok so Divination next, I checked with Madam Pomfrey, but the impression I got, was that you need one of the specific inborn talents to be any good at it, and that they only apply to a limited area, which might not even be covered by the curriculum. I can't see a job where theoretical knowledge, but the inability to use it in any way, would be beneficial and it looks like the results are pretty damn ambiguous even if you do have talent."

"Language Harry, so you're saying Divination is useless?" Hermione asked.

"Unless you have a talent, in which case, one on one tutoring in your skill would be better, yes." Harry replied firmly.

"So why do they teach it?"

"I'm not sure, perhaps some believe it, or the talents used to be more common, I did see some reference to skills anyone could use, but the book also said that they were now banned magic, so perhaps the course used to cover those."

"Alright so what are you taking?" Ron asked "you've ruled out all the easy subjects."

"Care, Runes and Arithmancy, if I find I lack the aptitude for one, or I can't cope with the homework load, I will drop my worst." Harry replied promptly and then decided to give Ron some advice "Ron a lot of careers don't require more than a couple of specific NEWTs, if you've got nothing in mind just worry about getting the highest grades possible since a lot of the jobs required a certain number of OWLs and NEWTs at a certain level."

"So I could still take Divination and Care?" Ron asked.

"Yeah" Harry replied, "you should be able to learn the theory and fake it for Divination, but there is no way you could get an O in it without a gift, you might have one though, the Weasleys are an old family after all."

"Alright, I'm going home early like a lot of people, so I can talk to my parents before the choices have to be made at the end of the summer. Are you sure about your courses Harry, Arithmancy is supposed to be really hard?"

"From what I can see, the first year course covers stuff I did at school and the magical properties of numbers, spell deconstruction isn't for a while, the book says that if you liked muggle math you are likely to be good at Arithmancy at least to OWL level and, math was my favourite subject. Runes looked really interesting; I can do loads of memorisation this summer, if I can find a way to keep my school trunk from being locked up. I'm wondering if some part of Runes relates to a Potter family talent, it just seemed right when I opened the book."

"Oh yeah mate, that's a talent awakening, you've got to take Runes then and if you take Runes you might as well take Arithmancy since they work together, most jobs that want one need the other to." Ron was smiling now that he understood where this change was coming from; family magic did funny things to a person.

"Uh hello," Hermione said "family magics?"

"I guess it's like speciation Hermione, people who were good with Runes married people who were good with Runes or Herbology to Herbology, whatever. Eventually they became an established ancient family and began to exhibit skills that nobody else had, because their cores were more in tune with a certain area of magic." Harry explained.

"I think I told Harry about it when I explained about the twins having some abilities blocked as small children, we were talking about the difference between family magic and a family's magics yeah?" Ron continued.

"That's right," Harry replied, "thanks for telling me by the way, I might not have paid attention to feeling otherwise."

"No worries mate" Ron responded and the three of them spent the next hour or so chatting about the coming year and the summer holidays, before Harry's friends left for the day and Madam Pomfrey came back to talk to him.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Insert standard 'do not own Harry Potter' disclaimer here.

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: Om nom nom, tasty reviews, thanks! Also my workplace is currently a construction site and apparently I'm not allowed in for a week, so you don't get an announcement about this moving to a weekly schedule.**

Chapter seven

"How are you feeling Harry, no sensitivity?" Madam Pomfrey asked, casting various detection spells on the area outside of Harry's supposed range. When the results all came back negative she smiled, _who knows what that man will come up with but I think we're safe for the moment. Unfortunately, I've still got to be careful since he can read the poor boy's thoughts, but discussions beyond those he wants are safe enough, without tipping my hand entirely. Thankfully he is now convinced that legilimency would be dangerous any time this month; I don't know what caused it, but the poor boy's mind was apparently a chaotic mess when, he tried to read him about the Chamber_.

"Nope, I am kinda hungry though." He replied part of his attention of the feeling of her spell casting; _I hope I can learn to tell the difference between the types of magic at least_.

"Pinny, could you come to the infirmary please?" Madam Pomfrey called and was rewarded with a pop.

"What can Pinny do for you Ms Healey Pomy Ma'am?" The little elf asked eagerly.

"Could you bring Harry some lunch from the approved list and tea for me please Pinny." The Healer replied, unfazed by her ever growing elf name.

"Pinny will be rights back." Said the elf disappearing for a minute then reappearing with a lunch similar to the food Dobby had brought the previous night. "Is you needing anything else?"

"No, thank you Pinny, you may go" Madam Pomfrey replied, fusing and settling Harry comfortably with the tray of food on his lab, as she perched on the foot of the bed. "Tuck in then Harry dear."

"Umm can I ask a question first?"

"Of course dear" _please don't ask anything I can't answer, don't ask something that I can't let the Headmaster find out about_.

"Well, I was reading the Creatures book, and the bit on Kneazles and Kneazle cross breeds, and there's a woman who used to babysit me, who had very odd cats, that she insisted were Maine Coons, Ms Arabella Figg, is she a witch?" This was the reason Harry had become so engrossed in the book, he had actually recognised the cat used as an example of a half Kneazle, Ms Figg's prized show cat, Mcavity.

Madam Pomfrey drew in a shocked breath, now that was not a question she had been expecting! "Arabella is alive? She's sort of a witch, medical complications from a curse during a pregnancy mean she was legally reclassified as a squib, we thought she had been killed or killed herself! She went to school with the Dowager Longbottom, and you say she lives near you?"

"Yes, she moved in when I was very little and used to babysit me when the Dursleys wanted to do something fun like a holiday or birthdays." Harry was definitely feeling betrayed, he had almost liked Ms Figg, but all that time she was feeding him stale cake and making him look at muggle photos of her cats, she had known who he was! She had known his past, known about magic and known about the Dursleys' relentless hatred of him and had said and done nothing, not one thing.

"Oh Harry dear" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed coming over to him and putting an arm over his shoulders supportively as he fiercely wiped his eyes refusing to cry again.

"She-she knew!" Harry managed to say through a throat tight with unspent tears "She must have known everything, how I was treated, the lies they told everyone and about my magic, why didn't she tell me, or tell someone? I thought she was nice, if a little crazy, what did I ever do to her?" he was rapidly losing the war against tears for the second time that day.

She passed him a hanky and started gently rubbing his back, "I don't think we will ever know Harry, she might just be wilfully blind to the worst of it. There are many ways in our world to compel a person to do something, or act in a certain way, in this case I believe that Ms Figg owes a life debt to Dumbledore, that would allow him control over her if it were repaid with vassalage. There might be compulsions keyed to you that prevented people noticing you, these could have been entirely for your protection. If Dumbledore keyed a compulsion to you that caused people to forget you when out of sight it would prevent word spreading when you met withes and wizards out and about, but who knows how that compulsion would translate to the muggles or to a squib? We have to keep an open mind, at least some of his actions were intended for good, perhaps she was asked to watch you but the specifics meant she could not inform you of your heritage, take the time to find the truth before throwing a potential ally away." Pomfery might have been a Hufflepuff at school, but it was mostly her half-blood status that had decided her against Slytherin.

Harry hiccupped and took a sip of water, "thanks, you're right there are lots of potential explanations, it's just when I saw that photo I so desperately hoped I was wrong…"

"Alright I'm going to give you a few minutes to yourself to calm down whilst you eat that lunch, then I'll be back Harry." Madam Pomfrey left and put up a silencing ward around her office where she ranted for several minutes about the way this web of good intentions, and lazy neglect, was affecting one of her favourite students. When she was done she drank her tea and took a mild calming draught, regretting the circumstances that prevented her from giving Harry one, but she needed to maintain her equilibrium for his sake.

Returning she again picked up the conversation "so we have a possible reason for the way all the signs of neglect that you give off are ignored, if there is a ward meant to protect you that is malfunctioning it could do virtually anything to muggles, if it is still present it might even be affecting some of the teachers here."

Receiving Harry's nod of agreement she continued "the other big question, for me anyway, is how the Dursleys are getting away with treating you as they do, no wizard's legal guardian ought to be physically capable of mistreating their ward."

"Really? Why is that?" Harry questioned.

"A duly appointed legal guardian must sign a guardianship contract before they receive custody of the child, or any financial benefits, I just don't understand how they are able to do what they have done, it is a binding magical contract. " Madam Pomfrey looked very confused, _though if Albus thinks they have signed then it might explain some of his arrogance about Harry's home life._

"That doesn't make sense, why would they have agreed to sign something like that, when would they have done so? They hate magic, and they didn't want me so I can't see them agreeing…."

"Yes and you said that your Aunt found you on the doorstep with just a letter?" Pomfery queried.

"Uhuh, I think she would have mentioned it if any more 'freaks' had been around since then." Harry responded thoughtfully.

"So either she is only you legal guardian in the muggle world, with nobody having ever used the proper procedures for placing an orphan or somebody might have included the forms with the original letter but never checked if they were signed. Your relatives never mentioned receiving a maintenance allowance for you?" she asked.

"No, they have always claimed that I was a freeloader and just dumped on them out of the blue." Harry replied sadly.

"We will have to check, I think we can go through Gringotts to get this sorted, either they sign the forms, and believe me the descriptions of fair and equitable treatment are exhaustive, or they refuse and you have grounds to demand your parents will be opened, to find your true legal guardians. " Madam Pomfrey suggested with a smile.

Harry grinned "so either they sign something which gives them money, but forces them to act like reasonable human beings towards me, or I get new guardians who will have to agree to a similar contract? Wicked!"

"Indeed Mr Potter, shall we try and write an appropriate letter for Gringotts?"

"Yes please," Harry responded still grinning from ear to ear.

They worked for some time, checking various reference books before deciding on the following…

* * *

Gringotts Bank

Inheritance and accounts

Potter Estate?

To whomever is responsible for the Potter accounts and legal issues,

I Harry James Potter apologise for the lack of correspondence on my part, I was informed only yesterday that my estate may be larger than the vault I have been using since my eleventh birthday (which coincides with my becoming aware of the existence on magic). If I have caused inconvenience or offered a slight due to my inexperience I apologise, if I have failed to respond to any official correspondence please note that I have never received any.

I need to know who my legal guardians are in both the muggle and magical world, I have recently learned of guardianship contracts and am puzzled as the muggles who are supposedly my guardians could not possibly act as they do if they had signed one. I have never been approached by a magical guardian and with my various school based escapades and my recent introduction to this world that suggests I have none. If I have no other guardians and if the child maintenance stipend from the Potter estate is large enough, the muggles that I live with may be willing to sign a contract, but it will take careful planning and execution.

Separate to this issue, if Gringotts contracts such a service, could you provide a quote for the harvesting of a 60ft Basilisk considered mine by right of conquest?

If you have a way of communicating that will bypass any mail wards, without alerting the caster, I would be willing to pay a reasonable fee.

Sincerely Harry James Potter

(Heir to the ancient and Noble house of Potter)

May you gold flow and you enemies decrease.

* * *

"Think that will do?" Harry asked the Healer as he put down his quill and admired his penmanship.

"A credible effort indeed Mr Potter and unlike the last two drafts, I can actually read it!" she smiled warmly letting him know that her words were without malice.

"Ok then, I need to send this secretly…" Harry thought about the fact that his owl always seemed to turn up exactly when he needed her ,and, his mind still filled with images of the beautiful bird, decided to try calling her as he would Dobby. ~Hedwig~ he called, only the words seemed to come out in a wavering hoot, as his partially activated abilities kicked in.

Madam Pomfrey stared at him in confusion for a long moment then Hedwig flew in through the open window and her jaw dropped "Harry, were you trying to call her just then?" she asked.

~Hello Girl, thank you for coming I need you to take something to the Goblins for me, oh dammnit how do I turn this off…~ "Hello Hedwig, good girl . Uh yeah I was Madam Pomfrey, I did not know I could do that." He finished the sentence, converting back to English by focusing his thoughts on humans rather than owls_, well at least I know how to activate my beast-speech now,_ he thought wryly.

"Harry dear, has that ever happened to you before?" Pomfrey questioned.

"No, she's been able to understand me for ages, but I don't think I've ever accidentally hooted, mind you if I was in the Owlery or at the Dursleys' I wouldn't have noticed, I never do when its snakes I'm talking to. What does this mean, is it like Parseltoungue?" Harry presented an innocent confused face.

"No dear, it's very rare though, there have been occasional reports of wizards speaking to animals, but most people believe them to be myth or a side effect of the animagus transformation, I'm sure McGonagall could talk to Mrs Norris if she really wanted. I think we might want to keep this to ourselves Harry."

"No arguments from me, I did not know I could do that, but I really hope I don't slip up, people talk about me enough as it is."

"Exactly dear, now let me just check her for tracking charms, if you would ask her to come over here?" She said stepping away from Harry.

Harry turned to speak to the owl, but with her usual intelligence she flew over to Madam Pomfrey and allowed the testing. When the results initially came up negative, she hooted once and held up her left leg, where a tiny ring could be seen, this time Madam Pomfrey found the charm and simply removed the ring. Upon receiving the all clear, the intelligent owl flew back to Harry and stuck out her leg.

"Thanks girl" he replied making to keep it to English then ~take this to Gringotts please, and see only the Potter accounts manager, nobody else, they might want you for a reply but make sure nobody sees if they do ok?~

~Off course fledgling, it is good that we can speak now, whilst I like the bacon thing you give me I must admit I am most partial to pilchards and had no idea how to communicate this~

Harry giggled ~Good to know your priorities, but yes Ma'am, have a good flight~

~wind to thy wings fledgling~ he heard as she ghosted back out of the window with the message in her talons.

Turning to Pomfey who had a stunned look on her face again Harry explained "she is going to make sure that only my account manager gets that, not some junior and she informs me that pilchards are a preferred snack to bacon." Harry giggled again at the gobsmacked face Pomfery was still making.

"Well then let's move on shall we? If we can't get this sorted before you go back, which we may not, I have several concerns and solutions to work on. The most pressing concern seems to be food, you appear to be repairing some of the malnutrition that I have seen, and have a higher metabolism than normal so this will be an issue."

Harry grimaced internally, he hadn't thought she'd notice, but this might be something he had to trust her with. "Madam Pomfrey, if I told you a secret that wasn't at all illegal could you keep it?" he questioned seriously.

"I believe so Harry, so long as it doesn't endanger anyone, and you wouldn't ask me to do that." She replied wondering what he was up to.

"Well then, um you know I couldn't get onto the platform at the start of the year, and I got a letter for underage magic use, which wasn't me, and of course the crazy bludger that tried to kill me?" Harry winced at the memory and rubbed his regrown arm.

"Not all of it, I'm afraid I am often out of the teacher gossip loop, but continue please."

"Well yeah, all of those were because of a house-elf belonging to Mr Malfoy that didn't want me to come to Hogwarts because of a 'great evil', anyway he was trying to help and he desperately wanted to be free, so I kinda freed him."

"You what?"

"I tricked Malfoy into giving him clothes, then bonded him as a Potter elf a few hours later, this was before you started helping me. My plan for the summer was to keep my head down as much as possible, but to find a way for Dobby to bring me food, he seems to be able to pop into my room, so I figured this year I could give him my luggage and he could maybe buy food in Diagon alley."

"Hummmmm good thinking, a house-elf loyal to you, is a great advantage, I'll have to consider it there must be ways to use this, you say he set of the magic detectors?"

"He did a hover charm trying to get me in trouble"

"Must have faked you signature, the trace only picks up wanded magic normally."

Harry grinned evilly "excellent".

"Alright the rest of my list will take time, I need to find what wards and trackers are present on you and that place, I know you relation to Petunia is supposed to keep you safe, but that means blood wards and they might not work now that you have so many substances in your bloodstream. We need to figure out how I am to see you if you recovery continues to be slow, it is probable that I will need you to perform magic regularly in order to assess your recovery. I need to come up with a way for you to contact me if you are in danger, and a way for you to escape, although Dobby might well cover both needs."

"Alright, I need to do a review of the last two years anyway, with the Heir of Slytherin stuff, and Hermione being petrified I don't think I've learned much this year, if I can practice it…."

"So there are benefits to this mess, well done for looking on the brightside. Incidentally, Harry, what bond did you use with your elf?"

"The old Potter one, I told him I wanted a bond that gave him allot of free will and didn't let him hurt himself and if the Potter one was good, we could use that."

"That's good, the Potter elves were always very strong and loyal, but most were killed along with your grandparents and the last was your parents personal elf, killed helping James on that awful night."

"Now I want you to nap for a bit, then you may read some more and get your dinner. Keep your personal elf a complete secret, he may well save you because nobody expects someone from the Muggle world to have an elf, so nobody would ward against them, even anti-apparition wards don't keep them out.

"Ok thanks Madam Pomfrey, I guess we are kinda hanging fire until Gringotts replies."

"Indeed, sleep well Mr Potter"

"Thanks "Harry replied rolling over and dropping off to sleep fairly rapidly, he really was surprisingly tired still.

* * *

**AN: thoughts on potential animagus forms for Harry? won't be relevant for ages but I'd like to hear.**


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Do not own Harry Potter etc etc

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: I apologise for how late this update was, I really needed to work through my ideas on Occlumency before I began. Thanks for all of the animagus advice, some cool ideas, especially from people who explained their rational. As always Moi I adore your reviews. **

Chapter 8: Priorities and time

Harry spent the rest of the day quietly before waking again at midnight and discreetly checking for observers. ~Fawkes~ he whispered furtively and the bird appeared in a brief bust of flame.

~To the chamber fledgling?~the beautiful bird asked in a muted trill and at Harry's nod flamed them both into Slytherin's chamber.

Harry landed on his feet in the centre of the chamber and greeted his ancestor "Good evening Ancestor Salazar, I trust you remain well?" noticing the gloom he hissed ~lights~ and moved to sit on a comfortable bit of rubble.

"Of course child, I hope that your health continues to improve and that your plotting goes well?" the statue smiled at him then tilted and eyebrow enquiringly.

Harry relayed his day, which, on reflection, had gone fairly well "Madam Pomfrey was really helpful, I feel a little guilty about the whole magic thing, but I think she needs deniability, if she doesn't know I'm faking she can't get into trouble" Harry finished his tale.

"Indeed, this is excellent news child, we did not have these contracts in my day, but then our concept of childrearing was rather different, a clever invention. We may have to recruit the local potions master for the harvesting of the basilisk, I expect the Goblins to charge a prohibitive finder's fee and then recommend him, along with every other potions master in Britain, regardless."

"But.." Harry protested.

"I know child, his interactions with you have been most unfavourable, I have only seen from your perspective and a few times from my disowned Heir's. I am …uncertain as to where his loyalties truly lie. However, in this chamber you hold power, he cannot leave it without you, nor speak of its contents, perhaps, as with Ms Figg he is controlled or coerced in some way. He has, after all, attempted to save you on several occasions, and it is obvious that he detests teaching here, so why remain? Hummm, this requires further thought, but without more information…."the statue trailed off into thought.

Whilst Slytherin thought, Harry, Fawkes and Dobby again went through the tears, food and chat routine, but Harry got Dobby to confirm that he had deliberately set of the monitors at Privet Drive that summer, although getting the little elf to calm down again after that announcement had been a feat. Dobby confirmed that he was having to be very careful whilst looking for information on the Potters, fortunately he would automatically be added to Harry's vault as an acknowledged elf, so that was the question of eating this summer sorted.

When this conversation wound to a close, Fawkes trilled a reminder to Salazar and pecked his ear to gain the statue's attention "what? Oh get off you silly bird!" Slytherin muttered irritably.

"Where were we before I was distracted? Alright, child, our first priority is your removal from, or safety and wellbeing with, your despicable relatives. You and our unexpected ally have a potential means of neutralising your relatives, the elf and Fawkes between them, can guarantee your temporary safety and ability to leave if necessary. Removal of them as your guardians is unlikely, but the first step when in residence will be checking the wards to determine their efficaciousness. Do you agree that you are doing all you can to fulfil the first objectives?"

"Almost, I need to learn about the wards and how to test for them, without a wand, but I don't know how."

"I am unsure, there may be information here at Hogwarts, but it would likely require too much time…."

"Ancestor Slytherin?" Harry prompted when the statue had not spoken for some time.

"Oh I am sorry child, something about 'time' is running around in my head, I shall recollect eventually do not worry. Well, the other option is your family's bequest to you, if there is more than a trust vault there may be writings that can help, accessible outside of the school, the wards may be based on your Mother's work, sacrifice alone would not suffice to have saved you, let alone granted lingering protection. There must be some reason Dumbledore insists on your return, although why he cannot just inform you….." The statue looked sad and a brief grim look passed across his face at this thought.

"Master Harry?" Dobby interrupted them cautiously.

"Yes Dobby, what's up?"

"Master Harry, Dobby cans be checkings the wards for yous sir! Dobby is able to do whatever is needful to serves the House, I cans be popping over and findings what keeps you safe, and if you is still in dangers, Dobby mights needs to check again with yous at the house though." The little elf was staring at his feet looking nervous for having dared venture a suggestion.

"Really? That's brilliant Dobby, you know the drill, don't get caught and don't risk yourself, if it takes days that's fine." Harry beamed at Dobby, knowing what spells were on the house before his confinement there gave him a much larger amount of flexibility.

The little elf blushed furiously "Dobby starts now, I sees you here tomorrows!" then he popped away.

"Ummm so where were we?" Harry asked, picking up the thread of the conversation again "ummmmm yeah, I remember, safety and food at the Dursleys', and analysis of why I have to be there and what magic affects me there, what's next?" He thought about it for a moment "Oh health in general, I guess, that or safety in general?"

"Health would be my priority child, but until you have guardianship settled it must be left largely in abeyance. I would suggest however, getting some exercises to break up the scar tissue from that fang, the Phoenix tears alone cannot heal it as it is equivalent to a curse scar."

"I had noticed all of my old scars fading except my forehead, there were lots of tiny ones on my hands from cooking and gardening, or I probably wouldn't have realised."

"Ah yes that scar. It and its associated link to Riddle are worrisome, especially from a magical health perspective. In conjunction with what we know of the diary it is most unsettling, I think we need somebody to examine it for active curses, but how we are to achieve that with any degree of confidentiality…."

"Might have to wait until the issue of magical guardianship is sorted before we can even begin…." Harry continued the thought "Why is it so worrisome, not that I like having any sort of connection to that thing."

"As you know I have only seen Riddle's life as it intersects with yours and what has occurred in this Chamber, I cannot know his thoughts, how he yet survives the destruction of his body or his avenues to return. However, when he was a student here he brought a petrified girl into this chamber and killed her in a ritual sacrifice, that sacrifice imbued a book with a foul feeling dark magic, and that book was destroyed by you this past Monday. I am ….concerned as to the nature of this ritual the feeling of the magic contained within that scar is similar, though not as …slimy?" the statue shuddered in memory.

"Right" Harry replied feeling sick "so his magic is tainting me in some way, and its similar to what allowed him to possess Ginny and possibly return to life?"

"That is my belief, thankfully you are of stronger will, and were gifted more powerful magic than the girl, it is also possible that this taint has not become active; for the moment, your magic has created a barricade against the taint, so time is a luxury we possess although it would not do to idle it away."

"Thank Merlin for small favours!" Harry said wiping his forehead and feeling a little better "I don't see that there is anything we can do at the moment, but if I come up with anything I'll run it by you first?"

"That is good child; however, interacting with the world as you do you have more chance to see an opportunity than I, if it is time limited trust your instincts, think it through, then size it if the opportunity still appears good."

"Ok! Well then the only other health related issue I can think of is exercise, I need to do some to take the most advantage of Fawkes' healing, but again the guardian thing kind of limits that." Harry responded trying not be be surprised by his ancestors faith.

"True child, subsequently let us consider safety, what, beyond your physical safety from your relatives, may concern us?"

"Well I can't really defend myself, no magic yet, so a way to defend myself without getting expelled?"

"Or if you have lost your wand I should think, child there are several solutions to that, what can you determine?"

"Well….there's muggle martial arts? Duddly is into boxing, but I think you can take general self defence, 'would take me ages to get any good though, can't think of anything else."

"No? Well at some point you must learn the sword in order to be worthy of the one you wield, no?" the statue asked again arching an eyebrow questioningly.

Harry paled and nodded convulsively, he had an inkling that making the sword of Gryffindor angry with him would be a very bad idea, right up there with smuggling dragons and following those spiders into the forest.

"There is also wandless magic, controlled magic done wandlessly is a matter of focus, discipline and intimate knowledge of the spell's magical makeup, it is limited to spells that you are so familiar with that you could literally cast them in your sleep. However, control of your mage sensing, and the Occlumency you need to learn will help you on that route and a few core spells could be picked, like?" He trailed of, again giving Harry the chance to think things through himself.

"Uhhhh light, unlocking and locking, maybe a shield or some way of getting my lost wand?" Harry ventured tentatively.

"Good, more can be added later, but light, locking and summoning are the usual core spells, well done!"

"So self-defence, swords and wandless magic, but I guess all of these are on our long term list as well?" Harry asked sounding defeated.

"Not entirely child, I can teach the basic forms and muscle building exercises for the sword, the early stages are largely muscle memory, many teachers do not give a live weapon in first year of a studentship, and, as I mentioned, we will be covering the preliminary stages of wandless magic."

"Oh, well that's good then."

"That's physical safety without overt magic or when disarmed, still to go, safety with a wand, or in the mind."

"I guess I really need to work on my defence huh? I don't think I learned anything this year and not much more last year, the best I can do is hope something from charms class is relevant, like Ron with the club in first year."

"Well the deficit is not your fault, but it is reparable, at least with your adventures you have the right mind-set, defence is about all of the magical and non-magical means you have of keeping yourself and others safe, I believe you have that, or will, now that you are able to develop your planning, sneaky, positively Slytherin side." The statue grinned at him when describing his Slytherin qualities.

"So I guess I need to find out what should have been taught, maybe my parents would have some decent defence books? Could I Owl somebody in the ministry for the syllabus? Could we have an independent study group?"

"All excellent ideas child, all quite plausible, the study group should help you to branch out politically…"

"What do you mean?"

"Do not misunderstand me, I acknowledge that between your Muggle life, and various happenings here, you have not had much opportunity to socialise with your peers. Unfortunately, that precipitated this year's disaster, nobody but your two close friends knew you well enough to know how ridiculous the ideas were. If you formed a study group for defence catch-up it would give you the opportunity to befriend people from other houses without being overt, long term you are forming a political base for when you attain adulthood."

"But!"

"But nothing, 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' aside, you are Head of House Potter, an Ancient and Noble House, whilst you did not know this, now that you do you understand the outline of what is expected of you. Besides which, you are my Heir and you are my best hope for the redemption of our line, you also need allies against those like Lord Malfoy."

"I… yeah, that's true, I need to find out more about my House, hopefully when Dobby figures out the basics I will be able to find an Ally or Vassal of the house, who can fill me in, without weakening my house."

"Precisely, quite remarkable your elf; the benefits of the Potter bond appear manifold given the degree of independent thought and action he appears capable of."

"Ok so for defence I need to talk to people before they leave and write some letters; mental stuff then?"

"Ah Occlumency and Legilimency, great and terrible tools, true mastery of either will take years, but the beginnings and a determination of your potential may be achieved within months. Sadly I can only teach our family's magic after the first stage is achieved, but it is learnt rapidly and provides an excellent passive defence, it is as if the mind is never quite were the legilimancer is looking. Not deliberately, it is like a mirage, always out of reach, of course an accomplished legilimense can overcome this, but it will delay them and appear unintentional, a mere by-product of your thought process."

"So I might not even have the basic defence before I come back to school?" Harry asked becoming worried.

"No, there is something, something about time…Oh! The Chamber of Secrets, I even I forget some of its secrets, this is a site of ancient druidic magic, it is why Hogwarts was built here, one of the things affected by their rituals was time, in this chamber time is more malleable than normal. We can make use of a time fluctuation ward, not until the end of this week sadly, it invariably sends one back a week in time,and divides the magical reserves available to the user, you could not have been present in the past or you would not have survived that bite, not with your reserves divided. We also cannot know what would happen if you with bound magic and you with unbound magic interacted, in order to even things out the bindings might transfer over as if they had never broken. This must be why you feel so tired still, if you have been using this compression to go back to Tuesday when you woke in hospital then your reserves will need time to adjust especially if you are casting in the other timeline. You are probably asleep in one of the side rooms right now, but it could cause all sorts of problems if we were to check."

"But basically, so long as we are careful and I go back no earlier than Tuesday morning I can get an extra week here to work exclusively with you? I still don't see that being enough?"

"Ah but you will have weekly check-ups for your magical recovery yes?"

Harry grinned like a manic and let of a small 'woop' before doing a victory dance "Yes! I can do magic this summer, I can do magic this summer!" he sang happily.

Slytherin waited patiently for Harry to finish celebrating, smiling a little, before continuing "now that that's out of your system, there is no time like the present to begin your Occlumency education. Occlumency is the art of organised defence of the mind, it is the natural counter to legilimency, all people have a natural resistance to legilimency, you may find it referred to as subconscious Occlumency in books although this is somewhat of a misnomer. The first skill needed to begin conscious or active Occlumency is meditation, this allows one to clear and organise the conscious mind and its surface thoughts, there a many methods of achieving this, we will attempt a few and I will expect you to read Muggle books on the subject to see if any of their methods suit you better. "

"Can Muggles learn Occlumency then?" Harry queried.

"No, one of the skills that set the early magical or shaman apart from his no-magical counterparts in the tribe was the ability to reach a true trance state, some Muggles (who may well be trace-magical) can achieve something similar, but the interaction with our magic is required to reach the visualisation of your mind's defences necessary for Occlumency.

"Oh Ok, but I should still look into their meditation techniques?"

"Yes, many Muggle religions use meditation as a tool and their writings may be more concise and current, the writings in our world on Occlumency are more from my time period than yours and are very wordy at that. The first step is clearing your mind, I will talk you through techniques when we begin, but you can expect anything and everything to pop up and distract you, a confusing whirlwind of thoughts and images, at first, too fast to even focus on. This will gradually slow and individual ideas will call for your attention, at this stage we will begin to flag incoming thoughts as urgent, unimportant etc, when this process becomes fast and subconscious you will have a mind clear of all but your focusing thought, I will then teach you to focus inwards, it will probably take a few weeks to reach the first stage and a few months for the second, so do not be discouraged."

"Alright what do I do?"

"Seat yourself comfortably, and we will begin with breathing." Salazar instructed, arranging his statue into an approximation of the lotus position. Harry sat comfortably and closed his eyes, listening as the statue talked "now focus on my voice, breath in 2,3 ,4 ,5 ,6 and out 2,3, 4, 5,6, in 2, 3…"


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, obviously.

Slytherins secret

**AN: Sorry for the delay, on the plus side having reordered events I've half written next week's update. I've tried not to dwell on things we've covered before, let me know what you think of the pacing?**

Chapter 9

Harry woke late again the next day and dutifully practiced his meditation for a little while rather than showing that he was awake. He found the breathing exercises were relaxing although he was making little progress on clearing his mind, in fact the exercises were so relaxing that he fell back to sleep until just after eleven

When he woke again he decided it was time to be up and about, after showering, dressing and eating he ran through the normal morning checklist of his health with Madam Pomfrey. He confirmed his continuing good health with the Healer and when asked, she suggested a combination of fine manipulation such as music and a series of exercises including juggling, push-ups and weights to work his injured arm as much as possible. Theoretically when the internal scar tissue tore during exercise the tears in his blood ought to heal it creating normal tissue in its wake, the range of movements caused by those exercises should gradually return his arm's full functionality. Following through with the plan Harry allowed her one bed closer whilst casting before reacting, she was now at the bed next to him and was pleased with the progress of his 'magical allergy'. Following breakfast, he engrossed himself in the borrowed runes text until his friends stopped by.

"Hey guys, how's things? Still enjoying the free week?" Harry asked, looking up and putting his book down as Ron and Hermione entered the wing.

"Alright mate, 'be more fun if you were with us of course, mind you, watching the twins is quite entertaining" Ron snickered evilly.

"The Twins? What have they got to do with anything?" Harry asked bewildered.

Hermione sniffed disapprovingly "Those reprobates are loudly lamenting the fact that they can't prank you, honestly!"

"It's driving them mad mate, you might want to watch your back at the start of next year though, if they can't get you know they will spend half the summer plotting. If you're really lucky they might only charm you every colour of the rainbow and make you dance the waltz to class." Ron sniggered at the mental image and twin's anguish both.

"Thanks for the moral support" Harry countered dryly "did you know they sent me a toilet seat last year, when I touched it the stupid thing hung itself round my neck and started singing dirty rhymes and I couldn't remove it for ages, I can only imagine what they will do with two whole months of uninterrupted plotting!"

"Well mate I feel for you, but I'm not gonna take that bluddger."

"Hey I'm a tragic hero, aren't you supposed to staunchly defend me oh loyal side kick?" Harry grinned and pretended to buff his nails nonchalantly.

"Why you little, I oughta… sidekick my ass!" and Ron jumped on Harry noggying him relentlessly until he took back the sidekick comment and both boys dissolved into laughter at the look on Hermione's face. "In all seriousness though Harry I do owe you, you saved my sister and the Weasleys are indebted to you."

"Ron…I only" Harry began uncomfortably, knowing where this was going.

"Stop, we are INDEBTED to you Heir Potter, your saving of a Weasley when her family could not leaves us so." Ron looked very serious all of a sudden as he formally acknowledged the debt.

"I…" Harry swallowed and glanced at the obviously confused Hermione "I acknowledge the debt between us, can I speak to your Dad when he picks you up?"

"Harry, honestly don't be stupid Ron doesn't owe you anything…." As Hermione ranted on about friendship and stupid boys and their male egos Harry and Ron shared a significant look and Ron mouthed "my Head of House will meet with you on Friday to discuss the debt."

After that, Harry and his friends talked about nothing important for an hour or so before Harry noticed Ron's furtive glances at the sunny day outside and Hermione's obvious book withdrawal symptoms. "Alright, thanks for coming to see me guys, you can let the others know they are welcome to drop by, I'm not fragile, just not allowed magic at the moment."

"Oh it's no trouble Harry, it's just that…."

"You want to go to the library before you lose it for the summer, its ok Hermione. Oh guys, before I forget again, is Hagrid back yet?"

"No…" They both looked surprised to realise that their giant friend was still missing, "oh no Hagrid we need to.." they both began shouting at once.

"Relax, I'll write something formal sounding to the Ministry, get Madam Pomfrey to check it for me then send it, I expect that 'The-Boy-Who-Lived' has enough political clout to get a man free after he was imprisoned without a trial, then proven innocent. Bloody title ought to be useful for something; maybe I can make them give him his wand rights back." Harry smiled remembering Hagrid's dangerous pink umbrella.

"Oh ok Harry, good idea, do you need help?" Hermione asked, clearly torn between her beloved books and her, admittedly justified, belief that her friends did not put quill to parchment without her standing over them holding a beaters bat.

"I don't think so, but if I do I'll ask." As they turned to go Harry had a sudden thought "oh and guys? Can you drop by Myrtle's bathroom and let her know why I haven't been to see her? Tell her she can come and see me so long as she doesn't get to close, explain my magic thingy will you?"

"Not Myrtle" Ron groaned "you really want to be saddled with her?"

"No not really, but... well I promised I'd visit and I haven't, I wouldn't want to face her if I upset her by lying" Harry explained.

"Alright mate, your funeral, see you tomorrow?"

"Sure see ya."

After his friends had left, Harry started work on a letter to Minister Fudge, he gave Madam Pomfrey an outline of what he was up to and then sat with the basic law book he had been using the previous day and began to outline two letters. When he had a rough draft Madam Pomfrey came over to help and they ended up with a letter that was suitably formal but hopefully looked young and spontaneous enough to disguise how much help she had been. The first letter was a little sycophantic, making Harry feel vaguely ashamed, but Madam Pomfrey assured him that Fudge had no sense of subtlety and needed his ego stroked regularly.

* * *

Dear Minister Fudge,

My name is Harry Potter and I am currently finishing my second year at Hogwarts where I was recently involved in the solving of the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets. I am writing to you in hopes that you can spare time from your busy schedule to easy my concerns over the fate of a friend of mine. Rubeus Hagrid was incarcerated in the horrific wizarding prison Azkaban over a month ago as a precaution due to the nature of the attacks on the school despite the fact that the student in the past died and recent victims were petrified.

As I am sure you know, since Lucius Malfoy a close personal friend of yours is aware, the Board of Governors has reinstated Headmaster Dumbledore now that the crisis is resolved. The conclusion of the crisis as Lord Malfoy can attest, proved that the victims were attacked as a result of a cursed diary left by a past student Mr T.M. Riddle who was also the instigator of previous attacks. I heard this in his own words from the ghostlike projection of Mr Riddle whist attempting to kill pureblood Ginnevra Weasley, he only ceased his attacks when it became clear that Hogwarts might close and that he would have to return to a Muggle orphanage. He deliberately framed Hagrid, whose ancestry makes him an easy target and was in fact rewarded for the murder he committed.

In light of this, I would like to know where Hagrid is, it is my fervent hope that he has been removed from the Prison but is recuperating before returning to the boisterous school environment, in which case my faith in wizarding Britain is secure. If however, he is still incarcerated I must question the ethics of imprisoning a man on hearsay evidence even after he has been demonstrated to be innocent of all crimes. I'm sure a man of integrity such as yourself will have released Hagrid and returned to him his wand rights which were wrongly taken back in 1942, however if this is not yet the case I hope that my bringing this to your attention will allow you to investigate the plight of my friend.

Gratefully yours

Sincerely

Harry James Potter

(In the name of many concerned students and ex-students)

* * *

In addition to this letter he had composed the following, which he would send about an hour latter to the head of the DMLE.

Dear Madam Bones,

I am writing to you due to my concerns over the legal system in Wizarding Britain, in the Muggle world where I was raised, every man has a right to a trial and legal defence before he can be incarcerated in a high security (mentally scaring and often fatal) facility such as Azkaban. Whilst I had previously believed this to be the case in my new world, recent circumstances have led me to believe otherwise and this scares me. My friend Hagrid has been held without trial on no more than circumstantial evidence for over a month because, as Minister Fudge put it 'we have to be seen to be doing something'. Since he has been proven innocent of this and his previous suspected crimes, I would have expected him to return to Hogwarts, but this has not occurred. Please could you investigate this for me? I am very worried about what ,in the Muggle world, would be an illegal attack, since this year I was considered a primary suspect and am terrified that this could happen to me, especially since I have no one to stand for me.

Enclosed is the letter I have sent to Minister Fudge

Sincerely

Harry James Potter

* * *

After sending both letters of Harry reluctantly began his summer homework, reasoning that he might as well get it out of the way whilst the additional texts, especially for History of Magic, were available. Unfortunately he realised how little he had learnt whilst under the blocks and so spent most of the afternoon re-reading his History book and taking notes, the last two years had sufficed to teach him little more than good napping skills in that subject. When Madam Pomfrey saw what he was doing she wordlessly slipped a small, well-used book on good essay writing and proper research skills into his ever growing pile, the ISBN number on the back indicating that her familiarity with the Muggle world went well beyond nursing techniques.

That evening, as with the one previous, he made his way to the chamber courtesy of Fawkes only to find Dobby already there, almost vibrating in his eagerness to report back.

"Master Harry, Master Harry, Dobby is doing it, he is finding the reasons for poor master to be living with nasty Muggle relatives!"

"Really Dobby? That was really fast, well done." Harry replied surprised at the speed and successes of his mission.

"Dobby is finding special wards sir, strong wards, walls of love and blood. Wards are protecting master from those with intent to harm, but wards should be a bright and shining thing and they are grim and the foundations are weak." Dobby's ears dropped.

"Am I in danger there?" Harry asked as Salazar asked "He used blood wards elf?"

"No Harry sir, not yets anyway, Yes Mr Slytherin Sir, Dobby is sure, blood linked to love, but currently powered by hate and magic."

The statue sighed "Well then child, Dumbledore wasn't lying there are protections there that could not be raised anywhere else, they will even protect you outside of the obvious boundaries. Those wards are based on a sacrifice of blood, whether willing or unwilling, death being the most powerful, sadly the unwilling aspect makes them dubious wards to raise which, in all probability, is one reason why you were not informed.

Harry grimaced "So Dumbledore was telling the truth, I do have to return there?"

"Yes, but with this knowledge we can determine exactly when you may leave, the conditions you have lived there under are not necessary, in-fact they are making the wards weaker than they would be if there was love in that home, or even mutual understanding. Elf, it is the emotional component that is tainting the wards, correct?"

"Yes Mr Slytherin sir, blood is hating blood, willing sacrifice but unwilling emotion, the magic is confused and it feeds on Maser Harry to make things right."

"So because Aunt Petunia hates me but mum died willingly…."

"Not just your mother child, from Riddle's perspective I have seen that night, your father and their house elf also, had any potters or potter elves survived the wards could have been raised for them, though it must be close relation to the sacrifice, your aunt suffices, but as a non-magical cousins are much weaker, a magical cousin would be fine, but a second cousin would not have the same strength. What worries me is the comment about feeding…"

"Is it draining my magic?"

"An easy way to tell, did you do much accidental magic?"

"Ummmm colour changed a wig, shrank a jumper, grew back hair appeared on a roof and vanished glass, huh that's less than one a year."

"Then yes it was draining you, and probably is when you reside there; in a stressful environment like that you should have had nearly weekly occurrences, especially in your seventh, ninth and eleventh years due to the magical maturation. It might also be draining extra because of the need to deal with that magical fragment, but there is no way for me to know. Did you find any other wards elf?"

"There is being many spells linked to wards, some is reporting on happenings, others is broken, they was linked to something and be breaking recently, they be gone before you is back Master Harry."

"Hummm spells to say if I stay home and if the wards are strong and spells on me that were broken by the basilisk?" Harry mused.

"That seems likely; some of the bindings on you would have needed regular reinforcement."

"So other than the blood wards, nothing? Is that normal?" Harry looked to the statue, then Dobby as he remembered that the elf would have more current knowledge having recently worked at a manor.

Dobby looked pleased to be asked, and, glancing at the statue to be sure he wouldn't be interrupting answered "No not normal, blood is not normal in wards, but nasty masters had old blood at the manor, there is being many types of wards, wards from accidents, fire and pests, wards for magical travel, wards for hiding and wards that does things to peoples trying to get in magic or Muggle, nasty masters had lots of nasty wards"

"So do the blood wards do all of that?"

"No master Harry, wards is supposed to hide master, they is keepings out peoples who means him harm, but they is being damaged to let nasty Muggles into own house so that wards stay up. They couldn't stops accidental harm, or peoples who is controlled, or do anything about what happens inside of the wards."

"I am definitely looking into warding this summer." Harry declared.

"I am afraid it will be a long time before you are able to do much child, especially since most wards require wanded magic."

"That sucks, but I still want to learn it, I need to know about what's protecting me, if I can hire somebody to add more wards next year I need to understand warding beforehand to make sure I get what I pay for."

"A valid point, certainly knowledge is rarely wasted, but we must be careful whom we allow near to you."

"Like with my scar, anyone who knows wards might see something funny about it…."Harry trailed of thinking hard, until Salazar prompted him "Child?" Harry just shushed him with a wave of his hand "shush there's something…. I had a thought to track down, it has been running around my head all afternoon and it keeps getting away from me." He stayed silent for another minute before jumping up and shouting "I've got it!"

"Go on then, what has caused you to be so excited?"

"Something Ron said today, he formally acknowledged that there is a life debt between the Potters and Weasleys because I saved Ginny."

"Alright debts are always useful" Salazar replied slowly, confused by the level of excitement Harry was exhibiting.

"No that's not it, don't you see, it's a family debt, the of age adults must pay back the debt for Ginny since she is so young, it only becomes her debt if it hasn't cleared by the time she is sixteen, which would be considered terrible manners right?"

"Right?"

"Well her mum's a housewife, no help there, her dad works on Muggle stuff with the ministry, he's a little inept, not really much help, her brother Charlie works with dragons, super cool, but not much help. Bill however, Bill is a curse breaker." Harry beamed and sat back proudly.

"Oh and this is relevant how…..oh!" dawning comprehension appeared on the statue's face.

"Exactly" Harry beamed, "we need somebody who knows about evil magic, nasty rituals and curses yes? And we need them to be absolutely trustworthy in case the news is bad, or they use the knowledge on themselves and like Dumbledore with Mrs Figg, anyone subject to a life debt is trustworthy and loyal beyond reason."

"Where does he work, does he even specialise where we need him to?" the statue queried beginning to match Harry's excitement.

"Egypt, I don't know specialities, but he was Head Boy and from what I know, very popular, so he has to be pretty smart and have lots of connections he can get information from. If he needs to learn anything I bet he can do it, and I can help with the money from the Basilisk, I can pay him and buy what he needs, it should represent a small fortune after all."

"This should work child, very well done, an elegant solution! Now, let's discuss the best ways of phrasing your request."

Harry was still bouncing excitedly a half hour later when they had finished their conversation and he had to settle down for meditation. Slytherin was pleased with his progress; he was falling into the breathing rhythms easily after practicing that morning and before bed, so Slytherin suggested he try focusing on a white, featureless room in his mind as the next few days' meditation focus.

A very happy, very tired, Harry fell back into bed at around 2:30 that morning relieved beyond measure that they could start working on the problem of the soul taint sooner rather than later, now that he knew what his scar meant it made him feel physically ill to think about.


	10. Chapter 10

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: I guess there's not loads of progress here it's mostly about me establishing my version of the main characters.**

Chapter ten: replies

Thanks to his midnight excursions and his double probably being back in time, Harry was still unusually tired and again slept through much of the morning, when he awoke it was to the sight of Hedwig waiting impatiently on his headboard. She had made the arduous journey, from northern Scotland to London and back, in a decent time since, judging by the large letter clutched in her talons, she had needed to wait a reasonable length of time before a reply could be issued.

~Good day fledgling, one would think you had become an owl, sleeping through the day like a sensible being~ she hooted managing to convey amusement despite her mostly inflexible face.

Harry reached up to scratch her head and quickly checked he infirmary before he could reply ~Hello Hedwig, good flight?~

~Clean air and good winds, a little blustery, but I manage, the Goblins were like a flock of starlings upon seeing a hawk when I delivered your letter.~

~Entertained were you?~ 

Hedwig hooted snootily ~when one is as far above others of their own species as I, then one must find amusement wherever possible~

~ Are you really smarter than other owls?~ Harry asked curiously.

~Yes, you are a powerful magic user and for two summers I have been the only companion available, you needed me to be intelligent and didn't know that I couldn't be, therefore your magic ensured that I am. In addition all creatures who converse with a speaker pick up a little human intelligence to add to their normal thoughts, it is a part of the gift, to allow conversation in words however simplistic their content.~

"Oh" Harry said blinking, when he thought about it nobody else had an owl that acted as intelligently as Hedwig, and Boa constrictors are not normally considered intelligent enough to speak in sentences, especially with a Spanish accent. "Can I have the letter please girl?" he requested, focusing on keeping to English.

When Hedwig extended her foot to him Harry felt a tingle of magic on the envelope and looked a query at the owl who hooted reassuringly so he took it. When he broke the seal, after reading the message insisting that Harry James Potter and only Harry James Potter was legally allowed to open mail from the bank addressed to him, he felt magic wash over his body tingling. It took him a few seconds to process the sensation and the first line of the topmost letter in the wallet explained it.

* * *

To our esteemed customer Mr Harry James Potter (Heir to the Ancient and Nobel House of Potter)

There have indeed been several communications from the bank to which you failed to respond, since they were received that means somebody unauthorised was opening your mail. Normally we do not offer our confidentiality protections without a direct request, but feel that our failure to detect the diversion of a client's property (your vault key) can be appropriately compensated for by the free provision of this service for a period of 12 years (equal to that during which your mail was unsecured). Return the enclosed form to acknowledge both our debt and your your acceptance of the solution.

May your gold always flow.

Junior account manager Griphook

* * *

Harry smiled to himself, he knew to be careful when dealing with Goblins, they were honest and generally helpful, especially to wealthy, polite, clients, but they considered anyone stupid enough not to pay attention during business to be deserving of the consequences. He quickly drafted a response and put it aside for Madam Pomfrey to examine later.

* * *

Junior Account Manager Griphook,

I accept the terms of the settlement and the scope of the debt provided that this service is extended to any vaults I control or have membership of and all of my actions within the bank, I am unaware if I currently poses other vaults but assume that there is a family vault, I also intend to start a separate vault for the Basilisk parts and any profit deriving from the sale of said parts.

Provided further errors do not become apparent, Confidentiality Protection for all of my vaults for a period no less than 12 years is adequate compensation for the debt incurred by loss of my vault key and communications prior to my awareness of the wizarding wold, after this period I cannot consider Gringotts wholly accountable.

I would like to discuss fabricated reports which may be sent to whoever has been interfering with my post and understand that this will require appropriate compensation.

May your gold flow and enemies flee

Harry James Potter

* * *

The next item in the packet was a standard guardianship contract, and a description of the process of binding, the Goblins also explained that his parents will had been sealed so that only an acknowledged Potter with Vault full access could retrieve it. Harry frowned upon reading this, before realising that Dobby was a Potter magically, and ought to be able to pop to the family vault even if Harry was too young, he would however, need to personally authorise him as a banking elf with Gringotts.

Following that was a large selection of paperwork, mostly statements and receipts, which had been copied from the Goblin's archives now that they knew he had missed them. They were accompanied by a note saying that he had until September 1st to respond to any questions or problems, rather than the dates stated on his paperwork, if action had been taken on the notices he would have the details and could cancel or approve the result. These were put aside until he could get hold of some decent filing stationary and had plenty of time to spread them out i.e. under the time ward 'next week'.

He also had a response stating that Gringotts would be happy to handle sale of Basilisk parts and any legal work, along with set up of a vault for the parts, as per his request, for a fee of 10% of the profits. However they did not keep appropriate potions masters on staff, they added that they could provide a list of qualified masters and contact them for him, for a fee of course. Harry thought over Salazar's recommendations and decided that he would approach Snape on his own, after researching appropriate fees, and added an extra line to his reply offering the Goblins 5% of profits or 1000 galleons whichever was larger provided that legal work included a contract for a potions master and contracts for the restricted items (namely the venom). He thought the goblins would likely agree, as 1000 galleons would equate to 10% of an average Basilisk kill, the average Basilisk being just over a 3rd the size of the one in the chamber and at least half as ancient.

The last item was a current statement/account summary with an introduction from his account management team. Which he was instructed to activate by placing a drop of blood on the Gringotts seal making the results visible to his eyes only and casting mild compulsion on the unfriendly. Unless he temporarily keyed them in nobody could see anything other than a statement for his trust vault.

* * *

**(AN: thoughts on conversion rates an general costs are welcome, I think i want Galleons etc to correspond to money when England was still using shillings and ha-pence, you know a galleon = a pond but a pound feeds a large family for a week)**

The current holdings of Mr Harry James Potter on May 22nd 1992

Active Account: Trust Vault, established July 31st 1980 by Lord Charles James Potter(deceased)

Partial Access: Potter vaults

Partial Access: Slytherin Vaults(account is subject to restrictions)

Partial Access: Gryffindor Vaults(account is subject to restrictions)

Named Heir: Black family Vaults

Named Heir: Personal Vault Lord Sirius Orion Black

Pending investigation: Further 3 personal vaults

All partial access vaults will become active when you meet the heir requirements, you MUST be a minimum of 17 to remove moneys, but many vaults have other requirements for entry, details can be provided by your senior account manager although the information is fragmentary for the ancient vaults.

This sheet is self-updating, for a fee, a similar feature may be added to your monthly statements. Further junior managers may be added to work with your recently acquired vaults should you activate them.

May our hoards increase and enemies despair

Senior Account manager Sharpaxe

* * *

When Harry put everything back into the envelope he automatically closed the flap and the seal resealed the packet, smiling happily, he decided to slide the envelope face down under his books, just in case.

He added another correction to his letter now that he knew some details of his vault and confirmed that he would be visiting his account manager when practicable, before putting his reply aside for the healer.

When he was done he looked up to see Madam Pomfrey hovering over him and quickly filled her in on the less personal aspects of his response from the goblin, they decided to wait and go over the guardianship contract in the afternoon. Having already been up for some time, whilst dealing with his letters, Harry ended up having breakfast in bed before getting up and having a bath. This luxury allowed him to do some Occlumency practice in private, after a 20 minute soak and mediation session he returned to the main room and Madam Pomfrey showed him the basic manipulation exercises for his arm and left him to it.

After about half an hour of this Harry's arm was aching fiercely so he stopped and Madam Pomfrey again did her test, standing just next to him before he allowed that he could feel the magic. In truth he had become much more sensitive to her magic over the past week, and could now feel the magic as a pleasant buzz even on the other side of the room. He hadn't made much progress with identifying spells, especially since Madam Pomfrey was sticking exclusively to charms, whether sensory or housekeeping and those spells were too similar at his current stage of development, to differentiate between. When she was done with her testing, during which she had him stand and tried coming from behind and the sides to test the true limits of his sensitivity, Madam Pomfrey cautiously ventured the opinion that he would be allowed out on Saturday in time to wave off most of the school.

Harry decided to put of his History revision and dived eagerly back into his Runes book, promising himself that he'd do boring work after his friends visited. The more runes he studied, the more he was interested, he idly wondered if he'd be good at languages, or if it was the magic in the runes that resonated for him. He had only been reading for half an hour when Ron and Hermione appeared at the door of the Hospital wing, Hermione looking like she had found some new crusade but not meeting his eyes and Ron looking distinctly uncomfortable.

"Hi guys" he greeted them cheerfully, when their expressions barely altered his tone became more serious and he asked "what's up?"

"Ummm nothing Harry, we're fine how are you?" Hermione responded still looking awkward.

Ron sighed heavily and plopped himself down in a seat next to Harry's bed "She asked me why I thought I owed you anything when you were just being a friend mate, and I..I explained well, everything."

"Oh" Harry responded eloquently, he had hoped to avoid having this conversation, ever, but he supposed that was just wishful thinking "Hermione…"

"Yes Harry" She growled through gritted teeth "thank you so much for telling him Ronald"

"Uhhhh" Ron replied leaning away from her in his chair.

"Hermione what precisely is the problem?" Harry knew of lots of possibilities, but he'd rather know which specific part of this tangled mess had her knickers in a twist.

"I don't know, it could be the fact that you went behind my back with this, or it could be that this 'debt' even exits, I mean can anyone prove it, I don't think so, or it could be that…" she responded launching into a patented, high-speed, Hermione tirade.

Harry cut her off by putting his hand over her mouth and she glared angrily at him "right, thank you, now let's address problem one shall we? Since I came to the wizarding world I've been trying to find out more about my parents and family, as you know. As you also know I've not had much luck, but in the process of researching I've often been curious about normal wizarding custom, life and beliefs and I've talked to Ron, Neville and some of the Quiddich team about things I've seen mentioned, mostly stuff that nobody writes about in detail because everybody knows, alright?"

"Yes I know that Harry, although honestly why you are interested I such a stagnated backwater culture…"

"Thank you Hermione, that is largely why you've been excluded in allot of these conversations, honestly what did you think me and Ron did, just play chess for hours day after day? No, we do talk occasionally; he could probably pass the first year of Muggle Studies just from our conversations. So after the troll incident Neville mentioned life debts in passing, talking about one of his Gran's friends, and I talked to Ron about it, neither of us was sure how to calculate the specifics so we researched it." He took a deep breath and looked seriously at the volatile girl willing her to understand. "We found that you do owe me one, but that the debt is easier to repay if the action is unconscious, so long as the debtor acknowledges in some way the debt. By that point you had thanked me for saving you from the troll, so we decided to wait and see, if the school was half as dangerous as it seemed, given that within two months we had run into a troll and a cerebrus, we figured chances were you'd save me using some advanced spell sooner rather than later. If you hadn't begun to repay the debt by the end of the year we'd have told you and let you choose an appropriate option, but since you had until your 17th to make a repayment or a decision we figured there was time."

"And then you saved Harry from falling of his broom, it didn't cancel the debt because you were friends and you weren't in any danger but it was a good start. 'Meant your magic was happy 'cause you were doing what it wanted, and fast, so…" Ron shrugged figuring she could understand the rest for herself.

"Alright I understand what you were thinking, if you believe in this debt nonsense, but surely it's just silliness, I mean magic isn't alive." Hermione protested.

"Hermione," Harry replied gently "there are documented cases of people with unacknowledged and unpaid debts going mad, people harming the other half of an acknowledged bond have lost their magic, wars have been won, lost, stopped and started over debts, it won't go away because it's not rational and measurable. Besides the way you act around me is very unlike you sometimes, petrifying Neville, making a restricted potion in a bathroom? That's the unresolved debt making you more receptive to my way of thinking; I think you would be our friend or maybe just my friend without the debt, but probably not as close."

"So I still owe you a debt?"

"Not much left, but a little, the devil's snare helped, but you were also in danger, figuring out the Basilisk helped, but same principle, I'd say it's over half gone now though." Harry replied glancing to Ron who nodded in confirmation.

"Ok and Ginny?" Hermione asked, wondering why she wasn't in the same boat

"Her debt is actually bigger, but as she has older magical family so they carry the debt and need to negotiate on her behalf, we'll figure something out." Harry shrugged as if he had no idea what he would ask.

"So I should just ignore this?" Hermione huffed.

"Pretty much, we certainly aren't going to treat you differently and from a wizarding perspective there is no stigma as you are obviously working to offset the debt, though it's possible nobody will date you 'till it's resolved." Harry explained feeling uncomfortable.

"Really? Why?"

"Uhhh it has to do with one of the options for repaying the debt Hermione" Ron replied rescuing Harry as he turned bright red.

"What do you mean…oh." She replied flatly.

"Yeah, can you see why we didn't want to discuss this with somebody we had known for a week, who had known about magic for a few months?" Harry replied regaining his composure.

"Right, I think I'll just read up on this on my own" Hermione replied jumping up "umm bye Harry see you tomorrow?"

"Bye Hermione" Ron and Harry chorused, the pair sat and chatted comfortably, mostly about the Twins latest pranks and Ron's choices for electives (he had taken Harry's advice and talked to his parents and skim read some of the books) until Ron had to leave for lunch and Madam Pomfrey come busting over to ensure that Harry ate, despite his late breakfast.

When he was done Madam Pomfrey again fired of a round of intricate detection spells looking for magical spies but came up clean. They went through the guardianship contract and what was required to make it legal and found that it really was well phrased, nothing could make the Dursleys love him, but the contract would force them to treat Harry fairly and as a decent human being. The problem was going to be getting them to sign it; Harry had some vague plans but figured no plan survives contact with the enemy and that he'd probably end up winging it.

By the time they were finished it was nearly four in the afternoon and Harry returned to his delayed History assignment. His newly unlocked brainpower, scepticism and memory were useful assets whilst re-reading the history text, but so far he had only achieved a review of the first term's work, partly because he was actually doing the assigned supplemental reading (rather than reading Hermione's summary) and taking notes. He figured he'd need to know this stuff, and much more, if he was Heir to an Ancient and Nobel house (after all failing any OWL, especially History, might be a pretext to deny him some of his hereditary rights), but wished the history were a little more involved from a reasoning and politics perspective, perhaps then it might be vaguely relevant to the modern day_. Besides, I need to get decent OWLs if I want my pick of careers, coasting by on old fame is hardly my style_.

During the afternoon some of the bolder Gryffindors popped in to see him, apparently having taken his invitation via Ron as the poorly disguised plea for company that it had been. He was amused to note that the twins were starting to twitch, thanks to their continued inability to prank him, when the Quiddich team came to see him. The twins decided that they needed to prevent a repeat of last summer and insisted on staying in constant communication with him, threatening kidnap (in an unconscious imitation of Madam Pomfrey) if they thought he was in any danger making Harry grin and thank them. Of course they casually brushed it of and claimed to only want to prevent damage to their favourite prank test subject, but Harry appreciated having some friends who weren't totally blind.

Harry had sighed in frustration and given up on his History around eight in the evening, but he had made it to Easter of the first year in his review work before losing the fight. His meditation was coming naturally before sleep, thought he hadn't yet made any progress on clearing his mind that was hardly surprising. As was rapidly becoming routine, he woke again at midnight and Fawkes flamed him into the chamber, Dobby still had another day before Harry had asked for his first report on the Potters and nothing had really come up during the day, so Harry used the time mostly to get more comfortable with his famous ancestor. Slytherin had him add a few exercises to the ones Madam Pomfrey had given him to help build up his arms for sword fighting and before he left they went over his meditation, but mostly Slytherin told of his journeys before settling in England supplemented with silly stories from the founding of Hogwarts.

Slytherin had evidently been something of a prankster and his description of the usually reserved almost serene Rowena screaming in fury and chasing Godric and Salazar around the castle after they had charmed all of her serious books to display bad love poetry had been hilarious, especially since Harry could imagine how Hermione would purse her lips at the very idea. He had gone to bed with an amused smile still lingering on his lips and an image of the bushy haired terror chasing after the twins running around his head.


	11. Chapter 11

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: Umm yeah sorry for the late update, I totally suck ****. I haven't decided to what extent McGonagall is being manipulated, but I do think canon McGonagall is the worst head of house possible, I mean she's a head of house and deputy head(ignoring that that work load is ridiculous) it's her job to deal with incompetent/corrupt junior teachers and senile superiors, no matter how much she respects Dumbles its ridiculous that she never checks on Harry, and nobody believes that Hagrid introduces all magical children to their new world.**

Chapter 11: Negotiations

When Harry awoke the next morning he was still smiling, _I wonder if I could somehow get the Twins to try that…nah, Hermione would figure it out somehow, she always seems to know when I'm trying to hide something like that. Still pranking might be fun, if nothing tries to kill me next year and I'm careful not to let it become bullying, maybe I could try it, might be a good way to study without letting on how much smarter and more motivated I am. _Lying in bed with his eyes still closed Harry continued to practice his meditation, he didn't think imagining a blank room would work for him, but he found meditation calmed him anyway. After about half an hour of this he yawned, stretched like a cat and, deciding it was time to get up, did so. Whilst reaching for his glasses, he realised happily, that his eyesight was still improving, and had actually nearly returned to what it had been in the first days of school when he just had trouble seeing the board_, I'm not going to be totally blind without my glasses and the prescription is finally right, Awesome_!

Looking at the clock after he had showered and dressed, Harry realised he had woken up earlier than previous days, so it was not yet eleven, he accepted his healthy breakfast with a smile and thanks for the elf that brought it and found himself less ravenous (although still with a healthy appetite) than previous days. _I must finally be fully recovered from the fight and used to the time ward_ he mused to himself silently_, oh well, it helped me appear ill and will help me appear recovered now, although I don't doubt I'll have daily check-ups_. A few minutes later he was proven right, Madam Pomfrey declared him safe to perform magic near and on, as long as the spells were non-invasive, but insisted that he return to her every morning for a check-up and chat. He agreed to spend the day until after lunch in the infirmary and only leave when the Weasleys had come to pick up Ron, the smaller number of students (casting magic for the last time before the summer) the better as far as the Healer was concerned.

When Harry was finishing of the exercises for his scar tissue a stern brown owl appeared at the window and tapped irritably to get his attention, even without his abilities Harry could interpret its attitude 'let me in peon I don't have all day to waste on you'. _Probably a ministry owl_ Harry thought snarkily as he let it in, glancing around the hospital wing and checking quickly for any magic on the owl he decided to take a chance and hopefully avoid being bitten.  ~Greetings noble Post Owl, I am glad to make your acquaintance, may I offer you refreshment?~ _hopefully formality will win my bonus points_.

~You speak? Humph if barely, take the letter little mage and I will find my own food~

"Yes sir!" Harry replied, and hastily relieved the snobbish bird of its burden, allowing it to fly straight back out of the open window, towards the forest. Looking down at the letter in his hands he was unsurprised to see the insignia of the Ministry of Magic, the Minister's personal seal over the flap was more surprising, _must be a reply to my letter then_. Looking over at where Madam Pomfrey was working, he called out "letter from the Minister if you're interested?" and she came over.

He opened the letter with the healer reading over his shoulder and read:

* * *

Dear Master Potter,

I appreciate you bringing this matter to my attention, it seems that it had slipped Lord Malfoy and Mr Dumbledore's minds to inform me as to the conclusion of events, perhaps you would agree to meet informally with me to discuss this during your summer? Don't worry; you're in no trouble my boy, the Ministry is always glad to hear from concerned citizens although I do not, of course, always have time for a personal reply.

Your suggestions were well thought out, you should be proud of your insight at such a young age, Mr Hagrid has been sent for a few days check-up and will return to Hogwarts with a new wand when he is well. It will be his decision to finish his schooling, as he already has the OWLs needed to carry a wand as an adult he may decide against.

Thank you for your letter and congratulations on your award for special services to the school.

Sincerely

Cornelius Fudge (Minister for Magic)

* * *

"Well, I believe he thinks you might be worth significant political capital Harry, you will have to be very careful what you say to him and where. But this is good, I'm so happy for Hagrid, very few people deserve that awful place, and now he won't have to carry that silly umbrella." She giggled mischievously; Hagrid's pink Muggle umbrella was notorious.

"It hasn't felt right without him here" Harry agreed smiling, "I'll let the others know before they leave, and don't worry I will be careful if I decide to see him, I will have to send a quick thank you note." He added as an afterthought and quickly scribbled out a draft.

* * *

Dear Minister Fudge,

Thank you for your prompt and generous response; I appreciate you taking the time to reassure me personally, I'm sure Mr Hagrid is very grateful for the opportunity to use magic again. I will have to consult my guardians before meeting you; my summer arrangements mean that my movement is restricted to keep me safe.

Hopefully we will meet soon

Sincerely

Harry Potter

* * *

When the matron had approved his letter he wrote it up neatly and put it aside to send with a school owl that evening. He was starting to feel very nervous about talking to Ron's dad that evening, but distracted himself with Runes whilst he waited for McGonagall to come and see him to confirm his choice of electives. Just after twelve the stern witch appeared in the Hospital wing door.

"Good day Mr Potter, Divination and Creatures wasn't it? Well there are no scheduling problems so I shall just approve it and leave you to your book." She reeled out, already turning to leave the room and not noticing the nature of the book despite the large rune on the page it was open at.

"Hello Professor McGonagall, actually I was thinking of changing electives_." For a woman who, Madam Pomfrey says, hates divination with a fiery passion you are making very little effort to dissuade one of your 'little lions' from taking a futile course_. Harry's eyes narrowed angrily_; well at least I know that, for whatever reason, you are totally under the old man's thumb_.

"Really Mr Potter, why you can't make your mind up I don't know, nothing has changed since Easter." She responded irritably but turned back around and finally entered the room .

"I don't know about that Professor, I'm older, I've had more than a day to think about the electives, and more to the point, I've just faced Voldemort for the second time since his supposed death, now I don't need Divination to realise he will try again and he will go after me again when he does."

"Very well what are your choices now?"

"Ancient Runes, Arithmancy and Care of Magical Creatures please." Harry replied promptly, smiling a she blinked.

"Reason for change?" She asked in a bored voice.

"Having been Muggle raised, by manaphobes, and having had only three weeks to acclimatise to magic, fame and parents that weren't unemployed drunks dead in a car crash, I have frequently found my background knowledge of the magical world lacking. Having received no career advice, and having no informed guardian, I had too guess at the best courses; Hermione thought all of them sounded good, so she was no help, and Ron's taking the same as I was, having magical parents and five older brothers, I figured he knew the best courses. However I read the start of the Divination book whilst stuck here and thought it sounded like a load of rubbish, so I looked at Runes and Arithmancy, both seem interesting, but hard, so I thought I'd take both and drop one if I found it to hard." Harry smiled innocently; hopefully my 'plan to drop one' will pacify the old man.

"It really is a little late to be changing like that Mr Potter…" McGonagall began, completely ignoring the manaphobe comment.

"I believe the last possible date to change is after the first week of the new class, as long as the student is able to procure a new book, Professor." Harry corrected 'helpfully'.

"Ah yes…very well, those three electives it is, I hope to see more work from you Mr Potter or you will be forced to drop one." She admonished sternly looking down her nose over her glasses.

"I'm sure without a teacher possessed by Voldemort ,giving me massive headaches whenever we were in the same room, whilst trying to deal with fan girls and magic; or without the threat of a deadly monster, a deranged house elf and the whole school openly accusing me of attempted murder, I will be able to concentrate better, Professor!" Harry added the last word only as a courtesy, his mouth had got away from him a little, but he was very annoyed with how badly the staff had looked out for him since arriving in the magical world. Whether or not it was all part of Dumbledore's machinations didn't matter, they were adults, he was a child, and it was quite literally their job to look after him.

"Humph, very well, see that you do." McGonagall replied and left the wing. Harry threw a disgusted look at her back_, thanks for the support…not_, and went back to his runes. _To think, it's not even lunch time yet_.

When the Weasleys arrived it was in a buffeting wave of sound, as Percy ranted at the twins, who were happily bantering back and forth, ignoring his loud protestations and Ron was still earnestly talking to his dad about something. Harry took one look at the loud gathering and Madam Pomfrey's lips pursuing from the invasion of her calm ward, before suggesting they move to one of the adjoining visitor's rooms. The Weasleys happily followed him as he called an elf for lunch and seated himself hoping that he could follow Mr Weasley's lead a little in the coming negotiations. He tentatively pushed his new senses out to the walls of the small room and could detect no spells, neither could he see any portraits, hopefully that would do.

"Hi everyone, sorry about the food, I've yet to have lunch, go ahead and help yourselves, do you need anything?" Harry started nervously, feeling that he had better play host but not really knowing how.

"Hello Harry, are you feeling better?" Mr Weasley asked leaning forward his face concerned "I want to thank you on a personal level, nothing to do with my being the Head of House; I know Molly already said this, but thank you for my daughter's life, Ginevra?" He looked at the girl who was staring at her hands.

"Th-thank you Harry, you're my Hero!" She added and blushed then looked down at her hands again.

A chorus of 'thanks mate' 'go honorary Weasley' and 'thank you Mr Potter' came from the various other Weasleys in the room. "Now don't be too nervous Harry, you have a lot of leeway due to your age, remember my boys consider you an extra brother and Molly and I feel that you always have a place in our family so this isn't like talking to say the Malfoys would be, but let's begin shall we?" Mr Weasley asked arching an eyebrow questioningly and sitting back I his chair in a relaxed pose.

"Um alright, uh greetings clan Weasley, I requested this meeting as a minor member of your clan has courteously acknowledged the full life debt which was created between myself as current head of the Potter family and Ginevra Molly Weasley an underage witch in the direct line of the current head of the Weasley family." Harry looked shyly at Mr Weasley hoping he'd done alright with the formal wording he'd seen it once in his family research but never expected to use it since he hadn't known that the Potters were a Noble house, let alone Ancient and Noble.

Mr Weasley smiled and nodded to Harry encouragingly "The Prewett line is Matrilineal for preference, so she is actually heir to house Prewett such as it is, until Molly's cousin has a daughter, the line would have passed to the first daughter born to one of her sons."

"Right, Ginevra Molly Weasley, heir to house Prewett, member of house Weasley, this debt has until the minor Miss Weasley's seventeenth birthday to be paid or formally decided, but may be carried by an adult member of the clan. I requested this meeting because it is my understanding that you would rather clear the debt if possible and I believe I may have a possibility which will at least reduce it."

"You are correct Heir Potter, we would not leave a life debt unacknowledged and unresolved, however the rest must be an adults only discussion, boys and Ginny, would you mind entertaining yourselves outside for a bit?"

"Alright Dad", they chorused, Percy looking a bit put out that his seventeenth birthday wasn't for another week or two.

"Now Harry, this part is a lot less formal, so you can relax."

Yes Mr Weasley" Harry replied, attempting to look less nervous, but this was crunch time, anything could go wrong, after all he didn't want to give too much detail to Mr Weasley, the man spent entirely too much time in the presence of Headmaster 'can't help but peak into your mind' Dumbledore.

"Arthur Harry, just Arthur, after all you are nearly family" He smiled kindly, unlike the somewhat overbearing Molly, Mr Weas-sorry Arthur, always made Harry feel more relaxed, safe even, it was certainly unusual for him to feel truly safe in the presence of any male authority figure.

"Yes Mr We-Arthur" Harry stumbled a little over the familiarity, but was glad to have been granted it. "I don't know if you had any specific ideas, I know this is a fairly severe debt, but I do have a couple of things that I need absolutely trustworthy help with, I think they might come close to or even match the debt."

"Are you sure Harry, I know you and Ron looked into this because of Hermione but Ginny's situation was worse."

"I'm pretty sure; the problem is I can't risk more people knowing about it than the minimum necessary until I can get clarification on one issue especially."

Mr Weasley looked at Harry for a long moment and waved his wand in a series of intricate incantations then held up his wand "I Arthur….. Weasley swear on my Magic that anything Harry James Potter asks me to keep in confidence I shall by any means available to me, until he gives me leave to repeat it." His wand flared signalling the acceptance of the oath.

"Can you keep someone from taking the information from you Mr We-Arthur?" Harry asked leaning forward easily, he had expected vague promises not a life threatening oath!

"I can child, I have enough basic Occlumency to know if somebody is in my mind, but the 'Weasley fiery temper' actually comes from a bloodline trait, it can only be fully learned after the magical majority, but we have what could literally be called a firewall in our minds, most Legillimencs are mentally burned and if I am about to be forced to give up the information, say via Veratiserum, the fire will consume it."

"I… Thank you, most people just say something vague and tell me to trust them, this is just to important and dangerous for that."

"It's fine Harry, I owe you a great debt, not just for Ginevra but the whole Wizarding world owes you for the night your parents died."

"You know it wasn't me who did anything…."Harry tried to shrug of the gratitude, uncomfortable, especially after what Salazar had said about his father and the house elf.

"Not entirely you, no. I know your parent's sacrifice played a huge part, but your magical strength would have been involved also and you have been forced to deal with a lot of unfortunate side effects ever since."

Harry sniffed and rubbed his eyes, most people seemed to ignore that he had lost his parents the night Voldemort or Tom, whatever he was calling himself, was defeated, they were too wrapped up in their own joy to care about his pain. "Thanks"

"Now then, what is it that you think you need help with?"

"Loads of things, but the main one is my scar." Harry began to explain, pointing at the damned thing.

"Your scar? Dumbledore said it was just that, as scar…" Arthur trailed of at the way Harry started shaking his head when he mentioned Dumbledore.

"When did he check it? Did he get a healer to look at it? A curse breaker? An Unspeakable? Did anyone other than him examine the mark left on the only person ever to survive the killing curse? From the story Hagrid told me he held me for all of a minute before leaving me on a doorstep, in the middle of November, with just a note telling my Aunt that her sister was dead and that she had just gained another mouth to feed, not that I'm excusing her actions, but what does he know." Harry was attempting not to go into a Dumbledore rant, he was glad that Mr Weasley had made that oath.

"You mean he never formally arranged guardianship for you?"

"Right on the money, Madam Pomfrey was explaining why she couldn't do the full medical check-up that she wanted, and she got me to talk about that place a bit, we've realised that they never signed the contract. Anyway, back to my scar, it hurt when I was near the possessed Quirrel, even as a spirit it reacted to Voldemort (Arthur flinched), that doesn't seem normal and I have been reliably informed that it has a frightening similarity to the magic in that book. The book is the next thing, Voldemort (Mr Weasley flinched again and Harry sighed) alright Riddle, nearly came back to life because of a book, we need to find out more about it and see if there could be more items like it. Lastly there are the wards at my house, I know there were a lot of nasty spells tied to them, and that they are leaching my magic to even stay present, I need somebody to look at them, maybe even improve them." Harry paused it had all come out in one long breath, but hopefully Arthur had understood anyway.

Mr Weasley sat blinking for a moment as his brain processed this information, "well I know something about curses thanks to my work, but nothing about soul magic and the darker spells that must have gone into that book. I also know nothing about wards, I'm not sure that I can help you Harry, I especially can't bankrupt my family to take the time this would need."

Harry's face had fallen when he initially heard the negative tone of Mr Weasley's voice but thankfully the man had just misunderstood. "Don't worry, I wasn't asking for you, I thought maybe Bill…"

"Oh! Yes William would be perfect, but there's still the issue of time, this is time sensitive, are you sure that Dumbledore couldn't..?"

"No! He refuses to answer why Voldemort keeps trying to kill me, he only speaks to me when I've had some big, convoluted, frankly contrived, adventure and when I asked him about my connection he lied to my face."

"Alright, so Bill…"

"Bill is an Egyptian curse breaker, he should know heaps about warding, and the Egyptians were notorious for soul magic especially based on immortality and return from death, hopefully he at least knows how to find out what's going on even if he can't fix it."

"And the time?"

"Well I apparently own full rights to a 1000 year old sixty to seventy foot Basilisk corpse, it could raise up to a million galleons, It's worth more than an estate. I think I should be able to pay Bill, even after my other expenses and with the necessity of spreading out the sale. Gringotts should give him a reduced work load or time off to deal with a magical debt, it's in all employee contracts and the goblins are very honour centric."

"True, I hadn't even considered what a dead Basilisk is worth, hopefully he will agree, what other expenses if you don't mind my asking?"

"Well the Basilisk was defeated with help from the school, so I'm thinking of some donations, I'll probably give each house a decent set of brooms and replace the training ones, those bloody things are death traps. Um I was also thinking I could pay for Ginny to see a psychologist and cover tutoring for the people who were petrified." Harry rushed the last sentence out not wanting to hit the reef of Weasley pride.

"I…that's very thoughtful of you Harry, you don't have to."

"But I need to, Penelope Clearwater lost months of NEWT prep, she's a prefect, it will be really hard for her to catch up at school, she's probably already lost her shot at being Head Girl!" Harry protested, the money would be negligible to him and it was the right thing to do.

"I.. that's very good of you Harry, if you decide to do so then thank you," Arthur acquiesced, he knew Ginny was going to need help and Penny was a good girl she should be on track for all Es and Os, what would begin petrified for months do to her final scores? "You seem different Harry, are you sure you are alright, do you need to talk about anything?" Arthur asked concerned, Harry had always been smarter than his schoolwork showed and his boys had helped to get him informed on the most necessary aspects of wizarding custom but something seemed off…

"I'm..I'm fine, thank you, technically I've never been better, I guess I should tell you, you'd be able to tell if anything new happened… Right, um, well you see, I felt this blockage when the Basilisk venom reached my heart and it dissolved just when Fawkes cried in the wound, then there was this multi-coloured flash of light, but none of it was the green and gold of my magic. From what I've been able to piece together I had multiple blocks and curses tied to me, some of them were probably done by my parents but others… The most recent seemed to have occurred when I picked up my wand, suddenly my mind goes all foggy, anything connected to magic was nearly impossible for me to understand. I think there might be a sort of notice me not tied to me as well, it seems to stop people from noticing the things that the Dursleys did to me. Let's just say the Phoenix tears have found more than just Basilisk venom to heal." Harry was so grateful for the oath Arthur had taken, he needed to talk to somebody who wasn't 1000s of years old or a phoenix, and Arthur was always an excellent listener, at some point during his speech an arm had ended up around his shoulders and he hadn't even noticed.

"I don't know what to say Harry, I'm very glad to meet the real you, the problem is that all of this should have been sorted by your magical guardian, I've felt that Dumbledore was slipping lately, what with the events of the last two years, but this is just…" Words failed him, most of those blocks had to have been placed on Harry by Dumbledore, he was the only one with opportunity and interest even if nobody knew his motive.

"Thanks" Harry sniffed and they just sat for a bit before Arthur decided he had better go and Harry formally requested he keep everything private except that he wanted to speak to Bill about a possible way of repaying the debt. Waving goodbye to the Weasleys he felt as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he attacked the remains of lunch with gusto.


	12. Chapter 12

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: I'm glad that so many of you like my Arthur, he shouldn't diverge much from canon, just stand up to Molly more, my logic on a lot of that generation's problems are that they are 'Dumbledore's children'. They all went through Hogwarts with good old Dumbels as head and he's not so good at teaching people to moderate their behaviour/stand up for themselves.**

Chapter Twelve: Parting

Harry followed the Weasleys down to the public Floo in the little room attached to the great hall, they were some of the last to leave, but his closer friends in Gryffindor had also waited in order to say goodbye. A round of hugs from the chasers and a 'good to see you up and about mate' from Dean and Seamus wasn't technically much, but Harry appreciated the gesture and made a mental note to pay better attention to his friends in the future. His parting from the Weasleys was a little silly but he appreciated the twins lifting what could have been a sombre parting, he 'solemnly swore' (although why that wording was so important to the two reprobates he could hardly fathom) that he would be keeping in contact with them, by at least weekly owl, so that they wouldn't worry about their 'littlest brother' then waved them all goodbye.

Only Neville remained in the Gryffindor second year boy's dorm, apparently his Gran had decided that her prior plans couldn't be disrupted for such a minor reason. Harry certainly sympathised with Neville, he got the impression that his Gran cared about him at least a little, but she was not the best guardian and being all alone in Longbottom manor couldn't be fun… he was sure there was an idea in there somewhere.

Walking back into Gryffindor tower Harry saw that it was largely deserted, most wizarding children had left, the last exams were over as of this morning and except for the first years most Muggleborns had wizarding friends they could go to before being taken home. Hermione had been invited to leave with the Weasleys but had decided instead that she didn't want to miss this chance to devour the library, most of the Ravenclaws had left along with all but a few of Slytherin and Hufflepuff. Colin Creevy (the strange, excitable, fan boy) was thankfully gone; a teacher had taken him home to be with his parents almost as soon as he recovered from his petrification. Glancing around, Harry only recognised one person in the common room, Neville was curled up in an armchair with a thick Herbology tome on his lap, so Harry shrugged and wandered over. "Hey Neville, looking up something for your greenhouses?"

The shy boy glanced up and seemed surprised to see Harry, they were casual friends, but poor Neville always looked a bit shell-shocked when somebody wanted to spend time with him. "Harry! You're out of the infirmary, are you alright, you not going to have problems are you?" His voice dropped on the last and Harry heard the underlying question 'you're not going to be a nearly squib like me are you?'

"I am, ah sweet freedom!" Harry spun in a circle with his arms out grinning, "Nah I'm good Nev, no long term problems, Madam Pomfrey has me on daily, then weekly check-ups though, apparently I'm going to have to work my way back up to the level of magic use needed for third year spells, but I should be fine by the end of the summer." Harry reassured him.

"Oh, I'm glad, Harry could you, y'know, um tell me about what happened?" Neville blurted suddenly, he was so used to being pranked he probably didn't know how much of the stories floating about could be trusted. "If you don't want to that's fine, it's just some of the stories are a bit crazy, I mean one of them had you fighting You-Know-Who with a sword and the another had a gigantic basilisk in a girls bathroom!"

Harry couldn't help it, he looked at the derision on Neville's face and burst out laughing, he wasn't sure why, but talking about his life to Madam Pomfrey, Salazar, Dobby and now Mr Weasley seemed to have made the process easier, he honestly wouldn't mind telling Neville. "You want the full length version Nev?" He asked plopping down in a chair across from the plump boy.

Neville looked surprised at his agreement (he had probably expected to be brushed off or ranted at) either that or he was confused by Harry's new nickname for him, but he responded. "Full version if you don't mind, I've not seen much of you this year, I thought after the end of last year you didn't want…"

Harry cut him of "Oh Nev I'm sorry, we weren't angry with you, it's just, well it'll make sense when I tell you, but with all the Heir stuff I kinda fell back into old habits and isolated myself, you know I only really got comfortable talking to people at the end of first year."

"Oh, I'm glad, I thought you had decided I wasn't worth continuing the alliance with when I found out about it over the summer." He brightened up considerably.

"Alliance? I just found out that the Potters were and Ancient and Nobel house and that I'm the Heir not a distaff line, I'd been hoping to find out about the traditional stances and alliances." He lowered his voice and muttered mostly to himself "Wasn't sure how, I can see the signs that the library has been carefully purged of certain books, or possibly the books have been spelled so that nobody can find anything on the Potters."

Neville frowned, he had been surprised that Harry knew so little about his family and knew he had been researching, but assumed he at least knew the basics. "But that's illegal, as the last of your line you are supposed to be being taught everything about it!"

"I know, not much I can do, don't want to risk being obliviated… so the alliance?"

Neville looked horrified but answered his question about their alliance anyway. "Yeah, Gran was pleased when my marks came in at the middle of my year, said 'maybe I wasn't a totally hopeless wizard after all even if I couldn't hope to fill my Dad's shoes', anyway she decided I deserved to start learning some of the Heir's role. Apparently the Potters have been allies with the Longbottoms for at least twenty generations, we've intermarried a time or two in the direct line and more often in the further family, not that either of us have much of that left."

"Cool, so we're practically family yeah?" Harry found he rather liked that idea, Ron might be like a brother but this was better.

"Yeah not close cousins but still related, I think my Mum might have been your godmother and the other way around" Neville sniffed and hunched up a little.

Harry lent forward and tentatively placed a hand on his arm, "Nev what, what happened to you parents mate, you never talk about them, but I don't get the impression that they're dead?" Harry crossed his fingers where Neville couldn't see and hoped he hadn't just overstepped the boundaries of their tentative friendship.

"Not dead, almost wish they were sometimes, they just lie there, Gran makes me see them every Christmas and in the holidays, it's awful." His voice was a flat, then he took a deep shuddering breath and looked up at Harry "They were tortured to insanity Harry, a few days after the end of the war, Death eaters looking for their Lord caught them outside of the wards." he explained in a growl.

"Oh God Nev, I'm sorry I asked you, I shouldn't have pried"

"It's alright, I-I've never talked about it, might help to have somebody who knows, Ron might, but then his Mum is a bit determined to keep her kids in the dark, like all the evil in our world will leave us alone if we bury our heads in the sand." The end was snarled angrily and the anger might have been aimed more at his stifling grandmother than at the absent Molly Weasley.

"Guess that explains your Gran, if you're more like your Mum but she keeps comparing you to him… Damn Nev I'm sorry, that's worse than everyone thinking me a carbon copy of my Dad, despite the fact that I know nothing substantial about him."

Neville smiled slightly "thanks Harry, I don't know if I'm like my Mum, Gran didn't really know her that well since, like your parents, they hadn't been married long when-when what happened, happened."

"I wish we could find out more, about both of our parents, if I ask people I just get the Gryffindor, Head boy- Head girl spiel, that doesn't really help me feel like I know who they were, hell I don't even know where they are buried."

Neville looked up sharply at that "What! Surely you've been…"

"Nope!" Harry cut him off "And I have asked, it's not written down, and guess who saw to the arrangements after their death?"

"Judging by some of Gran's comments that would be the Headmaster."

"Right, he seems to have an unnatural interest in my life, and …" Harry caught himself before mentioning the blocks, he would probably tell Neville, but not until they were away from the school "and it's just a tiny bit creepy to be perfectly honest."

Neville snorted, "I think you must be the only student that's spoken to him directly in years, and with what you said about the aftermath to the chamber… actually there might be way we could 'meet' our parents, at least sort of…"

"Nev?"Harry prompted as the plump boy lost himself in his thoughts.

"Uh right, well there might have been diaries, I know boys don't tend to bother, but obviously You-Know-uh Riddle did, at least our Mum's might have. Gran talks constantly about how great Dad was but I don't know much about him as a person, I don't know who his first crush was, or where he liked to go at the manor, basically who he was when he wasn't acting the part of the Longbottom Heir."

"Well you might be able to find something like that in their old rooms but…"

"No, no it'd be in the vaults most likely, my parent's personal ones went back into the main Longbottom accounts, but I think the house elves can get them for me." His face fell,"oh I'm sorry Harry, you probably can't get into your vaults, I can wait until we're older."

"Nev it's wonderful of you to offer, but it's alright, I'll check the vaults I have access to, just in case, but I want you to be able to meet your Mum, besides, if she was my Godmother then there would be stuff about my Mum in them, you could tell me whatever isn't too personal." Harry smiled gratefully, Neville was so selfless it hurt to watch, but Harry figured he could be a great friend or ally, he felt more than a bit guilty for accidentally ignoring the other boy, but he had thought he was avoiding him rather than deal with the whole Heir of Slytherin business (which now never failed to draw a wry smirk to his lips). It was often hard for him to predict what people who actually liked him would do or think and he had forgotten the other boy's painful shyness in his own insecurities.

"Are you sure you don't mind?" it visibly cost Neville to offer again, but he still did it.

"Go ahead Nev, least I can do after accidentally ignoring you all year, I thought you didn't want to be around me because of the whole Heir thing." Harry blushed embarrassed at his admission now that he realised he had been accidentally pushing the other boy away.

"Thanks Harry and you don't need to make it up to me, it's not like you meant to!"

"Well alright then, now that that's out of the way why don't you tell me what you're plotting for your greenhouses this summer?"

Neville's face lit up and he became much more animated as he pulled a meticulously organised folder from under the book he had been reading "Oh its going to be great, Gran says if I'm in the middle of the year again and my Herbology grades stay up she'll buy me a new greenhouse for my birthday, I'm going to start some cuttings just in case and Professor Sprout is letting me take cuttings of some of the safer plants from her greenhouses. I have a really exciting project as well, I've been working on cross pollinating two varieties of shrieking daisy and I'm hoping the hybrid seed will be a success…"

Harry pleasantly spent the remainder of the afternoon chatting to Neville about nothing important, and incidentally being granted a wealth of context for his Herbology lessons. When it was time for dinner both boys were reluctant to break of their conversation and eat but Harry's stomach was demanding in light of his recent healing and would not be denied.

* * *

Later that night when Harry had once again travelled down to the Chamber Dobby returned, flushed a dark green with the success of his mission.

"Master Harry, Dobby is hoping you is well?" the devoted creature asked bouncing in place. Already knowing the answer thanks to their bond, he continued speaking before Harry could even nod. "Dobby has the start of answers for Master Harry, he is being ables to travel to Master's homes and is gettings some knowledge from being bonded, not all is current and Dobby cannot go to Gringotts until you is registering him but he cans be answering some of your questions!"

"Um thanks Dobby, that's brilliant, I guess the first one is homes? I have only ever lived in one place and I would not really call it a home."

The elf's ears dropped "Dobby is knowing Master Harry, Nasty Muggles is not deserving to have the sweet master in their home. Master owns many homes; he cannot live there until he reaches his majority or is allowed entry to the Potter vault which will probably be the same, Dobby is sorry Master." The elf had a look Harry recognised, a slightly crazed glint suggesting that he had failed and was preparing to punish himself.

"Dobby!" Harry's voice cracked sharply pausing the elf as he was about to start twisting his ears, he continued more softly "Dobby stop, you haven't done anything wrong, and I do not want you punishing yourself ever! You are bound to me as a friend, sort or a liegeman, not a slave; I will not have you hurting yourself."

"Dobby is sorry Master Harry, he was forgetting…"

"It's ok Dobby, I tend to fall back on acting the way the Dursleys wanted when I'm not thinking, I just don't ever want to see you hurting, you are my friend after all." Harry smiled slightly and Dobby launched himself at his legs muttering incoherently about best masters and great wizards.

When Dobby came back to himself he backed up a step and looked at Harry critically "yous is hungry, not as much as before, but Dobby wills be getting you something and your Fawkesy cans be healing you again" he disappeared with a pop reappearing about a minute later with a delicious looking yoghurt, toasted cereal and fruit compote. "Here Harry sir, light food with all the good things you is needing, you will be eating it all" he glared at Harry, who wondered if the concoction would be poured down his throat should he refuse, not that he had any intention of spurring the delicious looking snack.

Fawkes trilled happily at him ~you are making good progress nestling, when we are done you will be as you should have been, this way is much better than the potions regimen Madam Pomfrey would have been forced to use, she might have needed to entirely regrow your bones.~ He sounded as angry as a bird personifying peace could about Harry's prior physical state.

For his part Harry reached his hand up to stroke the miraculous bird's chest and nuzzled into him slightly, smiling softly ~thank you my friend, you are brilliant, I've certainly no desire to ever drink skelegrow again, I know it must be painful for you to be caught between your current companion and a potential new one.~ Harry apologised guiltily.

~Oh nestling, don't be sorry, this is how it always works, we are allocated a span in which to guide our companion, we do not always stay for all of their time on this earth, if I had not know that you would need me at Hogwarts I would have left Dumbledore over twelve years ago when his grip on reality began to slip. Sadly to bond before your magical maturity could be very damaging for you, Now say 'ahhh'!~ He trilled in amusement and Harry could hear the bird's amusement, so he stuck his tongue out at the chortling phoenix before opening his mouth, tilting his head back and saying "Ahhhh" in a very pointed manner. As Fawkes trilled a sound like liquid glass running down his spine and cried a single pearly tear in to his mouth, Harry felt the magic between them swirl like leaves on a blustery day, he tried to analyse the feeling that again enveloped him as his swallowed that miraculous tear but could not, except that he was sure it was a positive thing.

He immediately tucked into his food, the tear making him hungry in its need for resources to heal his malnourished body, and waved for Dobby to resume his explanation from where he was standing enthralled by the phoenix song which was all he could hear as the future companions conversed. Salazar sensing his intent sighed in exasperation but interpreted anyway "Please continue elf, you were describing homes?"

"Oh yes, Master's homes are all being sealed and will need some tending now that he has an elf again, but when master is old enough he has many properties. Several holiday homes, the land at Godrics' Hollow, and the old manor are unoccupied, various other properties, homes and businesses are being leased out, Dobby only knows about Potter homes, not other vaults, he is sorry."

"Don't worry Dobby, I intend to go with you to Gringotts soon after school is out, we will look at access requirements and add you to any vaults possible, it's good that I already have a home for when I leave Hogwarts, if I can get partial access you might be able to get anything stored in those homes." Harry reassured his faithful friend.

"Child I suggest you investigate which businesses you lease too and any stock or shares you own, there's always the chance you own something useful such as a weapons or armour manufacturer or potions supplier."

"Thank you ancestor I will, so then Dobby what can you tell me about my family?"

"Oh lots and lots, masters family is always associated with protection, first wards were runic clay tablets buried under the hearthstone and Potter family came from there! Emblem is of a white stag and rearing griffin divided by a sheathed sword, stag is spiritual, it is associated with the soul and was added when the Pevrells married into the Potter line, Griffin is for courage, a guardian, sheathed sword means protection or the victory of peace. Master Harry is related to nearly everybody in wizarding world, not necessarily closely, his father's mother was a Black, and the line his grandfather Evans came from was not just related to Slytherin, Dobby will hopefully find a family tree tapestry, but he cans be telling you some of it now."

Harry spent as long as he dared just learning about his complicated family tree and the deeper meanings behind the family emblems, but didn't neglect his fencing training and mediation, not that Slytherin would have let him! When he went to sleep he dreamt of a large white stag running through his mind and chasing away the bad dreams, and just before he work he smiled and whispered 'Prongs'.


	13. Chapter 13

**Slytherins Secret**

**AN: Ummm I guess this needs some clarification, no Harry doesn't know about prongs, he's dreaming but I believe I mentioned something about the Pevrell connection and the white stag standing for the spirit and soul? Tried something a bit different here, let me know your thoughts?**

Chapter 13: Thoughts on Harry

That night a great many people's thoughts were focused on one person, they thought of him by many names, 'that boy' The-Boy-Who-Lived, My Heir, Prongslett and even Harry, their trains of thought differed greatly, but their decisions could all have a great impact on him and for many the paths of destiny would change tonight.

It was long past midnight and the family had a busy day planned but Arthur Weasley was still awake, he glanced at his sleeping wife and wished he could talk this over with her, but he had promised confidentiality and would never go back on that. Besides, she couldn't protect her mind, the Unspeakables taught all department heads, but he was sworn not to reveal their methods. _Unfortunately Molly can be a bit of a loose cannon_, he mused silently, _she'd either refuse to see the truth or go charging off with no plan, thus spreading things around; the poor boy might not have directly said so but I suspect he sees what I do, Dumbledore's fingers are all over this mess_. He thumped his head gently against the headboard wondering what he could do to help the young man to whom he was doubly indebted, at the moment, all that came to mind was continuing to act as he currently was, whilst giving Harry his subtle support. Frustrated he lay back down and attempted to sleep, but sleep was a long time coming as he went over the implications of various easily dismissed comments his boys had made and Harry's own revelations.

In his filthy, freezing, cell somewhere in the North Sea, Sirius Black shifted in his sleep, he didn't know how long it had been since he was a free man and had long since lost the coherency necessary to contemplate the exact length of his incarceration. Instead, as was usual, he was dwelling on his greatest failure, the day his 'brilliant idea' cost him his best friend and brother and his wife. Abruptly the thoughts which had been looping since shortly before his incarceration were disturbed, he felt a familiar presence giving of a feeling of acceptance and forgiveness, a tiny smile tried to form on a mouth that had made nothing but whimpers and sobs in twelve years and he whispered inaudibly "Prongs" as tears ran silently down his cheeks. Days later Minister Fudge would be shocked into compliance by the apparent sanity of a man whose mind had long been considered lost to the ravages of the Dementors and a plan would hatch from the kernel of sanity protected through the long years by Padfoot's existence.

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, Oder of Merlin First class, Supreme Mugwump , Chief Warlock, Headmaster of Hogwarts and all round hero, the greatest wizard the Light had seen since Merlin himself, was sitting in his office preparing for a long summer of politicking and mentally patting himself on the back. Little Harry was such a good biddable child, he really was proud of the work he'd done at the Dursley's, that aversion ward he'd had tied into the blood protections was a work of genius (and easily passed off as a method of hiding him from the remaining Death Eaters) the various bindings and restrictions he himself had added to the boy were combining nicely with the spells set on his home to create exactly the humble, self-sacrificing, suggestible, little sacrificial hero he needed. Oh it was a shame that the boy had to die, after all James and Lilly were such good children and the loss of the Potter bloodline would be a blow, but since the boy had to go it might as well be by Albus' carefully orchestrated script. If all of the variables played out as he hoped he'd even be able to keep to bloodline alive after the boy's sad death and possibly gain control over the Potter estate in the process, this magical problem the boy had developed would cause some hiccups with his usual means of monitoring the boy until he returned for the next year, but it would pay unexpected dividends in giving him a means to control Lupin's contact with the boy if he were left with no other options for Defence Professor. All in all, he thought to himself with a smug grin, the boy would happily give all he had then go willingly to his death for The Greater Good never suspecting that he might have a had a fuller and richer life before his ,sadly unavoidable, death. Content that his plans were all in place and that Harry would be safely returning home for a summer that would reinforce his desperate loyalty to the wizarding world Dumbledore began humming as he planned for the three week meeting of the international confederation of Wizards.

In her room just off of the medical wing Poppy Pomfrey stirred in her sleep and rolled over, she had been losing sleep and gaining more weight than was really healthy over the last year as she tried to think of a way to help Harry, now that she had a plan she could finally sleep without her conscience weighing her down. She had made the long term arrangements necessary to flee to America if Harry could not convince the Dursleys to sign the custody papers and if they could not find another way to protect him, but she had every confidence in the boy's ability to talk his way out of trouble! Harry reminded her of her youngest nephew, she knew that he had secrets within secrets, something more than the story he had told had occurred down in that chamber, whether it was just information or something more remained to be seen, she hoped she had been supportive enough that if it were dangerous he would have told her, but the sudden revelation of the Dobby and his closed doors meeting with Mr Weasley tipped her off to the lack of full disclosure. She smiled and muttered something, slipping into a deeper sleep, content in the knowledge that she had not betrayed the spirits of James and Lilly.

Ron rolled over in his sleep glad to be back at the burrow after a stressful year at school, he felt bad for Harry having to go back to a dull muggle house with people who didn't really seem to like him much, but he was sure he'd be fine, after all last year he only had problems because of that crazy house-elf right? Worry over, Ron's mind turned from thinking directly about his best mate to the discussion that they had had about the electives, he'd spoken to Professor McGonagall like Harry and had written a letter to his parents, but he still wasn't sure of the best route. At the moment he was signed up for Care and Arithmancy but he thought he might switch to Divination if Arithmancy seemed too hard. McGonagall had seemed disapproving over his original choice of Divination and had appeared relieved when he asked to switch, praising him for making the decision nice and early, he supposed that meant he should stick with it, he was also going to independently study for Muggle Studies and take the OWL if he felt that he could get and Acceptable or better, a plan which had made his Dad happy.

Hermione wasn't sleeping yet, she'd missed so much school! If she wanted to take all of the electives next year she had better ace the placement tests McGonagall was having her take in a month, she wasn't supposed to know about Harry's offer of tutoring and certainly wasn't sure about how she felt over taking his money, but she really hoped he was able to make some money from the basilisk. Oh she doubted the horrible thing was as large as he described it, fear can do strange things to your perceptions after all, and there was no proof that basilisks could live to be more than a few centuries so it was likely hatched by Voldemort when he was at school. Six years was plenty of time for it to have developed the lethal stare that killed Myrtle and a 60 year old basilisk would still be about 20 feet give how fast they grew in the first century. Despite that, there ought to be enough money from it to pay for a tutor, a mind healer and still leave Harry something and she doubted the other petrified students would turn him down, so there really was no reason for her to disadvantage himself. She hoped the silly boy would buy some decent clothes with the money, she understood that since he had wizard clothes the Dursleys just gave him second hand muggle clothes for when he did messy things at school but they seemed unable to understand that their son was overweight and taller than Harry, and the silly boy never brought his good clothes with him to the Burrow last year. Oh she'd heard that stupid story the Weasley boys had told about pulling bars off of his window and fleeing in the night but would hardly credit their tall tales, they had probably broken a safety lock, after all Muggles didn't lock children up behind bars!

Pettigrew slumbered peacefully dreaming of the day that he would gain concrete evidence of his lord's whereabouts and gain the power he so desperately craved, if only he had realised last year! The master would reward him handsomely if he arrived with the damn Potter boy, yes James Potter really would be his ticket to greatness, just not the way Peter had originally intended.

Neville woke with a start and glanced at Harry's closed curtains, nothing had changed but he felt that Harry was no longer in the room and wondered where he had gone to. Shrugging his shoulders he decided to give his Godbrother some privacy, after all, if he didn't _know_ that Harry was out after curfew then he couldn't accidentally reveal it. His mouth firmed in determination, Harry was returning to the muggles and now that Neville new why he hadn't responded to his apologetic letter last summer, he was determined to stay in touch and maybe meet up. He didn't have many friends and, thinking about it, neither did Harry, perhaps they could have a joint birthday party, the Dursleys certainly wouldn't want a bunch of wizarding kids at their house. He thought about Harry's reasons for picking his electives and decided that picking the ones the required the least magic might not be the best method, perhaps he'd read up on Runes and Arithmancy, he'd need at least an OWL in Runes to get anywhere with Herbology, perhaps he should talk to his Gran?

Vernon Dursley was snoring loudly but his mind was grumbling even as he slept, the ungrateful freak would be back soon after breaking out last year in that unnatural car, well he'd teach the brat, there would be no funny business, no sir! Besides Marge would be coming to stay and the freaks didn't like _normal_ people knowing about their unnaturalness so the boy would have to behave. Pet had been talking about Dudley's weight and how the buy needed to go on a diet, she had even hinted that perhaps he himself was carrying a bit too much weight! The whole idea was preposterous of course, but he hoped the return of the unwelcome brat would divert her from her silly notions, salad was no fit meal for a man.

In Hogwarts dungeons that Statue which currently help an imprint of Salazar Slytherin could not truly sleep, instead the spirit was mediating on the boy who's desperate situation had activated hi last safety measure. His new Heir was…pleasing to the spirit, cunning and ambitious without allowing those traits to cloud his considerable intellect and moral fibre. The state of his house was a disgrace, but what were the children in it to do? They were hated and reviled by ¾ of the population and brainwashed by their parents then treated differently by every alternative role model they came across, whilst being educated in a very linear unquestioning way at Hogwarts! His Heir would be unable to change this immediately but perhaps as their plans progressed…

Through all of this Harry slept, soundly dreaming of a white stag that spoke of things his waking mind would not recall.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter etc etc

**An: I do apologise for my complete lack of an update schedule, but I doubt I will improve. A consistent point raised by reviewers (whether this is good or bad varies) is Hermione and her attitude, whilst I don't want you to hate her, I do think that canon Hermione has a lot to answer for, however second year Hermione is not very old and quite sheltered (loving, wealthy, doting parents) she tends to let her idealistic view and how impressed she is with her own intelligence get in the way of her common sense, the adults around her don't seem to help (cough time turner cough) my Hermione should gradually start to see reality over the next year, at the moment she's being as socially inept as the evidence proves (i.e. all of her first year).**

**P.s. I apologise for the inevitable butchering of Hagrid's accent**

**Chapter 14: Cease fire**

When Harry awoke around nine the next morning he was momentarily disoriented to find himself somewhere other than the infirmary, _funny that I'm so used to being in there_. He sat up and peaked out of his curtains, noting that Neville had already left he went over his Occlumency with the curtains drawn and then his Physio with them open, around five minutes before he gave up on the exercises for his arms Neville wandered in, having just returned from breakfast and mumbled "morning Harry" as he made his way to the showers. Neville had never been a morning person, knowing he would soon be returning to Longbottom Manor where he would be required to keep his Gran's routine did not help.

Harry shook his head amused at the plump boy's semi-somnolent state replied "Hey Nev" but continued his exercises before taking his own shower and heading to the infirmary for his daily check-up. He arrived at the infirmary slightly out of breath, having found himself walking very fast and taking the steps two at a time, he had already missed both the privacy of the infirmary and his talks with Madam Pomfrey, in fact she was rapidly overtaking Hagrid as his favourite adult. _Thinking of whom…_

"'Arry! I was 'eading up t' the tower t' see yer lad, but Neville said I'd do better t' meet ye here, yer alright?" Hagrid peered down at him anxiously from behind his busy beard, small dark eyes concerned.

"Hagrid!" Harry shouted and launched himself at the large, friendly man in a bear hug; he had lost weight and looked slightly more unkempt than was usual but otherwise no worse for the wear and Harry babbled "it's so good to see you! I knew you were out of course, but it really doesn't feel like Hogwarts without you, I'm just on my way for a check-up but has Madam Pomfrey given you the Ok? " Harry abruptly stepped back not quite sure where that hug had come from, sure he was usually more open and affectionate with the large man than any other but he had slightly surprised himself.

Hagrid reached down and ruffled Harry's crows' nest hair in an obviously, carefully, gentle, manner before responding "The Dragon Lady hasn't got her mitts on me yet 'Arry, but I'm sure Saint Mungos…"

"Does an adequate job, still I would be happier if I checked you myself." Madam Pomfrey sniffed startling both of them with her sudden appearance. "Now come along, both of you!" she instructed looking sternly at both escaped patients.

Obediently they both nodded "Yes Madam Pomfrey" and followed along after her like ducklings. In the infirmary she checked them both over, obviously happier now that she was able to use magic on Harry, then the three of them sat for breakfast where Hagrid demonstrated his usual facility with keeping secrets.

"I hope I can see you more next year Hagrid, with the summer and you being taken away there will be months between visits." Harry mentioned in passing, then focused his attention as he noticed Hagrid's shifty look.

"Ummm I'm sure yer will 'Arry, you said ye were takin' Creatures next year, what else?" He responded making a vain attempt at changing the subject.

"Runes and Arithmancy, so any idea about new teachers for next year? Obviously Lockheart has to be replaced…" Harry noticed Hagrid glancing away as he mentioned new teachers, "have you decided what to do now that you have wand rights again?"

"Well I did me 'erbology, Astronomy and Creatures NEWTS anyway, independent study and all that, got me OWLs already, reckon I know most of the Creatures mastery exam, just needed a wand for a couple of spells and because without it I counted as a squib, can't take a mastery as a squib even in non-wanded subjects."

"That's great Hagrid, you should ace the exams with all the stuff you know, what's your new wand like anyway?"

"Oak and dragon-heartstring, 16 ½ inches, quite like my original but the 'eartstring is from a Norwegian Ridgeback like Norbert and Ollivander used a feather from one of me hippogriffs to help it attune to me magic since I've got out of practice. Yeh really think should go for it, try for my mastery?"

"Of course, you're great with creatures, everybody knows that, having a formal mastery will just prove to people like Malfoy how knowledgeable you are, but don't you have to teach to get the higher tier mastery?" Harry waited to see if he had baited his trap appropriately, there had been rumours of the current Creatures professor wanting to retire, Madam Pomfrey concealed her smirk at the boy's Slytherin manoeuvring.

"Well yeah, but Professor Kettelburn's been looking for a replacement for ages, he 'oped young Charlie would come back, not much chance o' that, the boy always was dragon mad, Professor Dumbledore might ah mentioned that I could teach if I passed the lower tier exams. Ooops, I shouldn't ah said that, can you keep it quiet 'Arry, might be difficult to get past the Governors what with my heritage if they get wind of it before I'm qualified that is."

"Sure Hagrid, that's wonderful though, you as a teacher! Will you keep your groundkeeper duties and the hut? What changes are you going to make, has Professor Kettelburn given you his old syllabus and lesson plans yet?" Harry fired of the questions rapidly, then blinked and blushed.

"Slow down lad! As to the groundskeeper I'm not rightly sure, might have to see how this teaching lark goes before giving up me day job yeah? Do ye think he would give me his notes, they'd be a right help, I can't ask for the exams at the Ministry without giving myself away 'afore I take the masters test in August."

"Sure why not? He's retiring right? He doesn't need them and he must be going along with Professor Dumbledore's plan, why should he force you to be unprepared?" Harry reasoned aloud, "oh I'm looking forward to Creatures more than ever, I've been reading the book and whilst we are mostly allowed to see XXX creatures some of the more intelligent and friendly XXXX are on the first year syllabus, mostly the more exotic pets, I've never seen a full Kneazle or a Crup even, since I wasn't brought up here."

Hagrid blinked at the enthusiasm "Which book d'they use now then?"

"Ummm '1001 Fantastic Beasts and where to find them' for the first years, there are more specific ones set later but I've not looked yet and something about a test book? It's a really cool book though, like a Filofax with search terms, real easy to use."

Hagrid was beginning to look worried, "Ah don't know if I can do this, there's so much t' learn about the teaching stuff, what if I get this wrong? I know most of my pets scare people and I don't want the kids to stop liking magical animals because I can't get this right."

Harry smiled reassuringly "Don't worry, I'll help you, this summer, you can mail me your lesson plans and we'll talk about what's too easy and too hard. Why don't we come here for breakfast until I go home and I can help you plan, you can show me some of the animals that you aren't sure about, when term starts I'm sure Hermione will help you go over any changes to the exams, she certainly seems to know it when we revise."

"Thanks 'Arry, was getting a bit panicked there fer no good reason, I appreciate the help though, a tosser like Malfoy'd think nothing of getting me fired over showin' the kids soemthin' a mite to exciting!"

"That's alright Hagrid, why don't you ask Professor Kettleburn for his notes and a copy of the texts he uses, then we can meet up tomorrow and talk about your plans?"

"Alright 'Arry, see yer tomorrow, and thanks fer askin' about me, Dumbledore's letter must a been lost."

"Sure thing Hagrid, you were my first friend you know and like I said it's just not Hogwarts without you!"

* * *

When Harry finished his conversation with Hagrid he was surprised to see that it was nearly lunch, shrugging he went to drag Neville away from the greenhouses and they picked some food up from the hall to eat picnic style on the grass. Harry noticed that when his specialised food appeared Neville also took some, obviously wanting the lighter foods in the hot weather and the house elves just sent more up. The boys ate an enjoyable meal down by the lake, occasionally throwing crusts or apple cores to the squid's reaching tentacles and just chatted about nothing. Harry wisely kept his mouth shut about Neville's Gran but was determined to help the other boy make her see reason, the way she smothered and belittled him was hardly healthy and couldn't be helping Neville to perform well at school, his awful performance in Professor Snape's class came to mind. Finally the time he had been dreading rolled around and Harry hauled himself to his feet with a groan "right then, I've got to go see a man about a snake" he attempted to joke though it fell a little flat.

"Good luck mate, I'd offer to come with you but frankly the man terrifies me, I'd not be much use." Neville replied guiltily.

"That's alright Nev, I can't really negotiate with you there anyway, it would look like I expected him to cheat me, not exactly polite. It's just that, whilst I'm glad he agreed to meet with me, I really don't want to do this, he's entirely to sharp, but even if I knew another qualified potions master it would be rude not to offer him first refusal of the job so I'd better just grin and bear it."

"Glad to see my attempts at teaching you and Ron wizarding social rules aren't falling on deaf ears." Neville smirked.

"See you are helping, by proxy at least, I just wish you were wrong" Harry grimaced, _why oh why do I have to deal with Snape, it was such a nice day?_

"Go on, don't want to be late I need to get back to the greenhouse anyway, see you at dinner?"

Harry nodded then flashed a small grin "if I'm not back for dinner send out the search parties, I may be being rendered down for potions ingredients!"

Neville nodded sombrely then his mouth twitched and he began to laugh and Harry sadly shook his head walking away muttering under his breath "Oh if only I were joking, Neville's not the only one who thinks Snape is one scary, scary man!"

* * *

When Harry arrived at the entrance to Snape's Office five minutes early he almost turned and walked away, but instead screwed up his courage and knocked twice "Come in Potter" Snape drawled causing Harry to suck in a breath, straighten his shoulders before stepping into the room. "On time at least I see, very well, what do you 'need' to see me about Potter?" As Harry opened his mouth to reply he was interrupted "well hurry up I haven't got all day to waste" Snape snapped.

Harry closed his moth with a click, breathed deeply to centre himself again and answered in a polite level tone "I'm looking to hire a Potions Mater for a short local job and as the highest ranked and only local master you have the right of first refusal."

Snape simply stared at him for a moment as if taken aback by his non-confrontational tone, then he steepled his fingers and leaned forward slightly "Do you indeed boy?" Harry flinched almost imperceptibly at the hated word boy and Snape sneered "What could you possibly need a potions master for and why should I believe that this is anything other than some elaborate prank hummmm?

"Perhaps because I have never played a prank on anyone in my life and because I don't want to dishonour myself by falsely entering into business with somebody? " Harry replied maintaining his calm voice although his mind was as agitated as ever, the survival skills he had honed at the Dursleys' were no longer locked away, to his immense relief, so he was more than able to keep his temper at this relatively mild provocation. "As to why, well I recently killed a Basilisk on school grounds and, as I mentioned in the infirmary, I thought it should be sold to cover catch up tuition and therapy for the possessed and petrified students, however since I discovered and killed it alone and only I can access it I have been told that it is legally mine, this means I can't just ask the school to do it though I believe some form of compensation to the school might be appropriate."

"You dare to lie to my face? I'm supposed to believe that a twelve year old idiot killed a Basilisk, not to mention the minor fact of there being a Basilisk in the school and nobody knowing, oh and you begin the only one able to locate it? Does that sound right Potter?" Snape snarled angrily although when he mentioned Harry's age there was a flicker of fear in his eyes that seemed to drive the sudden rage higher still.

"Yes you are" Harry replied levelly looking the potions master in the eyes for the first time as he made his statement and focusing on the events surrounding the chamber. "The Basilisk was in The Chamber of Secrets accessible only via Parseltoungue which I am the only known living speaker of in Britain. It moved around via the plumbing and how else would you explain the still dripping fang I gave Professor Dumbledore and all of the petrified students, some elaborate hoax?" Harry looked away before his level stare could be considered impertinent and hoped the brief contact had been enough for the Legilimens to confirm that he believed himself to be telling the truth.

"I… very well, assuming for a moment that I believe you about the snake what do you want?" Snape had a puzzled air about him although what precisely had altered in him Harry could not pinpoint, his tone was still vicious.

"To negotiate a standard contract for the rendering of the corpse which I will then sell via the goblins, you would be paid via ingredients or the profits depending on your preference." Harry waited with baited breath, as much as he disliked Professor Snape he did not want the work of trying to figure out which of the other potions masters in Britain had associated with house Potter and their order of precedence not to mention competence!

"A standard contract?" Snape drawled thoughtfully "now what would you know about that boy?"

Harry suppressed the automatic flinch that came with the word boy, most of the hate had gone out of Snape's voice anyway leaving a much more professional tone behind. "I asked my account manager for the standard Gringotts contract and the handling of restricted ingredients forms, well actually I asked them if there was a way to make sure nobody killed anyone with the venom but it amounts to the same thing. Would a Gringotts hazardous duties contract suffice? The goblins have given suggested values but we can negotiate for a percentage or straight fee."

"You are offering hazard pay Potter?" Snape asked surprised.

"Of course, part of the ceiling collapsed whilst we were down there and the venom is one of the most dangerous natural substances known, the tools used will likely be useless afterwards, as I said before I will not dishonour myself by dealing falsely with you." Harry was privately becoming quite irritated, he knew Snape disliked him but when had he ever given the man cause to expect him to act so badly?

"Alright" Snape snapped suddenly "let me see these contracts!" he held out his hand imperiously, looking impatient at the few seconds it too Harry to hand over the contracts.

After half an hour of careful reading during which Harry stood silently trying to work on the calming exercises Salazar had given him (and failing miserably) Snape and Harry settled down to negotiate. In the end Snape, like the goblins, chose to assume that Harry was exaggerating the size of the Basilisk due to his natural urge to boast and the fear of the event so he refused the percentage fee and settled for a straight payment although he did take half of the value in potions ingredient. With that agreed, he and Harry signed the paperwork required and it glowed briefly with the blood red of Goblins' magic confirming that they were both signing willingly and duplicating the forms for the bank and each person's records. The Harvesting contract used a very mild oath but the one for handling venom would strip a person of half of their magic for attempting to use the parts for something illegal. With that done they headed over to the chamber for a quick site survey with Harry furiously considering the best way to handle his 'return', _should I be scared? Determined? Cautious but jumpy? False bravado?_ He mused as they approached Myrtle's bathroom.

When they entered Harry called out a greeting to Myrtle and was surprised to receive no response _either she's not talking to me or she took my advice to visit the rest of the castle_, he mentally shrugged, _oh well I'll find out eventually_. "Well then here we are Professor, the entrance is the sink." Harry made a show of examining the carving and concentrated on snakes ~Open and protect the secrets of your Heir~ "I think that was snake?" Harry muttered acting like he still had little control over his ability.

"Parseltoungue Mr Potter" Snape corrected irritably then flinched at the grinding sound of the pipe, his wand was held loosely at the ready as the entrance opened "it would appear you were successful." He leaned forwards and took a half step towards the open pipe before Harry's next words stopped him.

"Ummm wait a sec, I just thought of something and I want to try it" Harry switched back to Parseltoungue, he certainly didn't want to slide down a filthy pipe and hopefully this would help rather than hinder his attempts to turn Snape into a neutral party (he wasn't delusional, even saving the man from certain death wouldn't make him friendly) ~Stairs please~ he hissed and then plastered a nervous expression across his face. When the pipe reformed itself into a plain staircase (much less ornate than the one he usually got) he exaggeratedly sighed in relief "Phew glad that worked or I'd have looked like a complete idiot, also glad I don't have to jump into a pipe when I can't see the bottom." Harry explained, grinning sheepishly.

The dour man's lips twitched in an aborted smile and he replied "indeed we couldn't have that" leaving Harry to fill in the blanks between the sarcasm "still well done, for saving me from jumping down a slimy pipe …2 points to Gryffindor." He turned away and began walking down the stairs with a muttered 'lumos' illuminating the twisting staircase.

Harry merely stood for a moment blinking in shock, Snape had given points to Gryffindor, Snape! Then he heard an irritated 'hurry up Potter' and jogged after the man and upon reaching him glanced at his lit wand, shrugged and hissed ~lights~ causing the torches to flicker alight and asked "Professor are we just going to leave the entrance?"

Snape twitched almost imperceptibly and muttered "Stay here Potter I do not wish you to break your fool neck being an idiot Gryffindor whilst you remain my only route to a fortune in potions ingredients" before turning and walking rapidly back up the stairs ignoring Harry's huffed acknowledgement. Shortly afterwards Harry felt several bursts of magic across the periphery of his senses which he assumed were wards put up by the potions master and was glad that he had reminded the man, they didn't want a curious student getting fried because they crossed the wards to the chamber without the heir (Harry) present.

When they reached the end of the stairs Harry was glad to see the fallen stone had retuned although it looked a lot less structurally damaging and more decorative than before. Harry suspected that the original rock fall had been caused by the chamber protecting itself from foreign blood, which would explain why he hadn't actually been harmed but only he had passed it; Ron had implied that he had suddenly hit 'loose rock' about 15 minutes before Harry returned with Ginny, incidentally just after he had accepted Slytherin's offer, he had yet to mention his hunch to his ancestor but it seemed right. "I'm not sure what you want to do about this, we could just enlarge the hole for today if you need specific spells to deal with a rock fall?

"That is actually a good question Potter, now be quiet and let me look at this" Snape replied striding over to inspect the rocks, occasionally prodding one and sending a few spells with no obvious affect at the ceiling. Eventually he answered "They should be safe to move, the rock does not seem to be structural, in fact the ceiling appears intact, it seems the fight between Weasley and Lockheart may have triggered a trap. I'm sure even you can think of a spell to assist the removal." Snape finished with a sneer.

Harry muttered under his breath just loud enough for Snape to hear "Can't risk asking the chamber to remove the rock, even if it worked it would rearm the trap and we don't know the trigger. Wingardium Leviosa!" he finished louder swishing and flicking his wand at a smaller rock near the hole and levitating it to the side, he didn't dare check for Snape's reaction but hopefully he could use this week to erode some of Snape's 'Potter is an idiot' attitude.

They continued to move rocks, Harry only choosing small rocks and taking frequent breaks, Madam Pomfrey had given him strict instructions about his spell casting and, whilst he wasn't truly damaged, he needed to maintain the appearance of having the inhibiting spells still on him in addition to his magical illness. Snape glared at him and appeared to be about to snap each time he chose a small rock or paused but evidently remembered his briefing on Harry's 'condition' and chose not to solicit the formidable Healer's wrath by bad mouthing her orders. Finally after about an hour of work , mostly on Snape's part, there was a clear path through the rock and Snape decided enough was enough "Enough, we may have to clear it before transporting the parts but I wish to see this find a gauge how long it will take to harvest without becoming late for dinner." He growled out and strode forwards, cape billowing in his trademark look.

Harry followed happily behind knowing that there were more doors requiring his password, presently they reached the high commanding doors to the chamber itself and Harry again hissed ~Open and protect my secrets~ just to be sure. After all, whist Snape could not be forced to reveal what he saw there and the magic of the chamber prevented any knowledge of it from leaving, it did not protect knowledge of Harry should he let something slip. As the doors swung open Harry took a step back and appeared to brace himself for something unpleasant and announced tonelessly "Here it is Sir the chamber of secrets, and there's the Basilisk, it's intact but for the eyes and a tooth" he winced a rubbed his newly scared arm. The room looked exactly as it had when he first entered, Salazar was back on his throne, the Basilisk was lying dead at the statue's feet, half in the trickle of water and the torches were flickering threateningly, adding dancing shadows more than illumination, Harry actually felt a fraction of the fear he had felt a week ago despite his certain knowledge that (besides Snape who was under oath anyway) nothing here wanted to harm him.

Snape for his part just glanced at the Basilisk when Harry pointed then continued examining the room…for about five seconds until his brain caught up with his eyes and his head swivelled rapidly back to stare in gathering horror at the gargantuan corpse of one on the most dangerous beasts known to magic and Muggle alike. "Merlin and Morgana I think you actually killed Salazar's own basilisk!" he breathed in shocked awe before turning to Harry and back to the Basilisk. He kept looking between the two of them with a growing look of shock for nearly a full minute before he visibly pulled himself together and his Slytherin mask slid back on…mostly. "May I see your arm Mr Potter?" he asked more civilly that Harry had heard from him before glancing at the arm Harry was still unconsciously clutching. Reluctantly Harry pulled up his sleeve and help out his forearm for the Potion Master's inspection, Snape paled slightly at the size of the wound, it was two inches round and took up most of the width of his arm, pale fingers ghosted over it then abruptly he pulled away "You were lucky not to lose that arm…"

Harry snorted an interruption "I was lucky not to lose my life!"

Snape looked like he wanted to snarl a reprimand for the interruption but considering the subject matter..."That too, are you having trouble using it?"

Harry grimaced and flexed his hand, the skin around the scar puckering oddly as it protested the motion "I've got exercises, hoping to break up the internal scar tissue, but I've lost strength and flexibility at least for now."

Snape hesitated for a second then replied "I could see Madam Pomfrey about scar and burn healing pastes and potions now that you magic is more stable, they might be a help."

Harry flashed him the first genuine smile he had ever felt in the man's presence and responded "Please, if you have time, at the moment I'd probably flub any tricky wand movements, so anything to get me back in shape would be welcome."

Snape turned away and muttered "aright, I'll look into it, now for this beast" as he walked towards the corpse. Half an hour later and Snape was done checking the environment and condition of the body so they both headed out sealing the staircase and separating to change for dinner; they might have avoided the slimy pipe but the chamber was by no means clean. As Harry slipped back into the Gryffindor common room, spotting a relieved Neville in a chair by the entrance, he thought _Well, that went surprisingly well_.


	15. Chapter 15

**Slytherins secret**

Disclaimer: still don't own Harry Potter

**AN: Thanks for bearing with me over the time it has taken for me to write again, I had serious difficulty writing this before I realised it was due to the scene I was trying to write being unnecessary to the plot.**

Chapter 15: changing relations

Sunday passed uneventfully; Harry woke, escorted Snape back into the chamber, talked with Hagrid and Neville and then returned to provide (limited) help with the work in the chamber. Snape had made the sensible choice Harry admitted grudgingly, he had rendered the carcass down into the largest easily transported pieces possible and just moved those into his workrooms where they became vastly easier to handle. Harry supposed his recent monetary acquisitions almost explained why he had been civil, (not nice, no, never nice, but civil,) he had been 'Mr Potter' rather than a shouted 'Potter!' and his normally scathing comments had lacked their cutting edge. Harry was so unsettled by the continuing civility (after the initial shock of the Basilisk had worn off) that he was actually unsure whether this startling alteration was a good thing and found himself almost wishing for the presence of an audience so that the sour man would inevitably return to predictable behaviours. Nevertheless the day had gone well and after his late night lesson Harry had gone to sleep content. Now however it was morning and Harry found himself staring blankly at the note that had been owled to him, having suddenly become a bundle of nerves.

Mr Weasl-_Arthur_ Harry mentally amended, had sent him a message, Bill was back in the country for a short visit and would talk with Harry about the details of his plan to settle the debt between their houses. Now Harry certainly had no reason to expect talking to Bill to be difficult, but aside from some anecdotes of Ron's neither he, nor the Heir to house Weasley, really knew anything about the other. If this became an old fashioned negotiation full of pureblood formality Harry would not be totally lost, but he might not make a good accounting of himself and more importantly, he might not feel that he could really trust Bill. The nature of magic was such that there was always a loop hole in any magical agreement if you were determined enough, Muggle fairy-tales alone demonstrated that, if the meeting with Bill went poorly he'd both have to come up with something else (short of marrying Ginny) to clear the debt and find another way of figuring out what in Merlin's name was going on with his scar and the diary. Given the connection to Voldemort that his scar seemed to possess he would dearly love it dealt with sooner rather than later and just knowing that he had a plan was helping him with the gut wrenching nausea that being connected to that THING had induced, a significant delay would have him mentally chasing his own tail, he just knew it.

Finally at 10:30 the suggested time arrived as did Bill, he came spinning from the Floo lacking either a significant amount of soot or any sign of disorientation much to Harry's peevish indignation. Harry unintentionally gasped "how on earth do people do that?" before blushing furiously and looking at the floor in an attempt to reassert the control over himself that he had apparently just lost.

Some of his fears over how this meeting would conduct itself were absolved by his lapse however; as his visitor chuckled warmly before replying "I assume you mean not face plant on the exit? Ron did mention that incident?" at Harry's mortified nod he continued "practice, practice and more practice, most forms of magical travel become easier once you learn to apparate, so that helps, those that suffer from motion sickness never can learn to flue properly, it has to do with the spinning."

"Umm thanks" Harry murmured, finally looking up, he consciously straightened his spine and tried to relax his shoulders "pleased to meet you, obviously I'm Harry Potter; I assume you are Bill Weasley?"

"Right you are Harry, no need to worry, I'd be pleased to meet you even if you hadn't just saved my little sister and the first female Weasley in 7 generations, you've had a good impact on little Ronnie, he sometimes thinks before he speaks lately, mind you it doesn't actually _help_ but it is something."

A laugh escaped from Harry before he could do anything to stop it and he felt a smile forming on his lips, "Yeah Ron tries, but if there's a curse for metaphorical foot in mouth syndrome he's been hit by it! Still he's a great friend, never makes me feel dumb for not having been brought up knowing the stuff wizards take for granted you know?"

"You weren't? Right, obviously that is part of why Dad said there'd be a lot I need to keep private from everyone, I assure you my Occlumency is top notch, the goblins insist, now where are we going to talk about this?"

Harry bit his lip slightly and motioned Bill into the meeting room from the previous Friday "in here if you'd just put up some privacy spells?"

Bill nodded and began (or at least Harry assumed he was, it wasn't like he knew the spells yet) as he finished Harry added "and now we leave" and Fawkes flamed them both to the chamber.

* * *

Bill landed with a yelp, slightly unbalanced by the first instance of involuntary magical transport he had experienced since he gained his apparition licence more than six years ago and Fawkes trilled a wicked little snigger. Harry grinned at the bird's sense of humour and thanked him for the transport before sending him back so that Dumbledore couldn't miss him; whilst he was occupied with that Bill's curse breaker reflexes had kicked in and he was now stood in a balanced stance, wand out, looking around the cavernous space cautiously. "Harry?" Bill asked a question and a warning in his voice, after all the man was cursed with prankster brothers.

"Bill this falls under the Oath of secrecy that I believe you offered and that I know your Dad warned you I was going to ask for as part of the repayment of the Life Debt, not that you could easily betray any secrets you learnt in this room." Harry snorted adding the last bit as an aside to himself.

"Alright, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here but why, and where are we?" Bill was still glancing about him warily.

Harry grinned suddenly feeling an urge for the dramatic and flung his arms out spinning slightly "Welcome William Weasley to the creation of my Patriarch and Ancestor, scene of my most recent battle, personal hideaway and the fabled Chamber of Secrets!"

"What?!" Bill spluttered staring at Harry open mouthed.

"Well it's a long story, which you will get in detail but let me quickly give you the bare minimum, between the defeat of the Basilisk and Ginny waking up a few things happened that I've not told anyone about; the long and short of which is that my Mum had Slytherin blood and I won magical rights the line of Slytherin by defeating Voldemort a third time. We are using this rather uninviting room because the Chamber of Secrets is literally that, nobody can gain information learned in the room by any form of coercion save perhaps deceit." Harry finished and looked at Bill hopefully, he would be the first living human to hear about Harry being the Heir of Slytherin and Harry was worried that his reaction would be worse than the one he had received for being a Parselmouth (or beast speaker as he now knew himself to be).

Bill blinked a few times, opened his mouth and raised his hand then closed his mouth, before finally speaking, and when he did his words surprised Harry "I William Fabian Weasley swear on my life and magic not to reveal anything which Harry James Potter reveals to me in confidence without his express permission and then only to those whom he gives me permission to reveal it to, so mote it be" he glowed for few seconds and Harry felt the magic still and settle a faint line to his own core. "Now" he continued sitting down tailor fashion on the stone floor "tell me _everything_!"

* * *

"Merlin Harry how in Morgana's name does a twelve year old have a life this complicated?" Bill asked at the end of Harry's lengthy exposition.

Harry grinned and gave a slightly watery chuckle, the day had been cathartic for him, it had cleansed some of the poison from the memories but recounting his experiences was still a harrowing ordeal, as Bill said he had been through a seen more than most adults could fathom "just luck I guess?" he ventured sarcastically.

Bill snorted and replied darkly "your luck is a strange thing, it seems to give with one hand and take away with the other!"

Before Harry could do more than shrug glumly (because really it was true) Dobby appeared next to his master with a 'pop'. "Dobby could tell master didn't wants to be interrupted when he was talking to the long wheezy but Master Harry is done now and must eats or nice Phoenix's hard work is being wasted." The elf cringed at giving Harry something tantamount to an order but straightened again when Harry smiled approvingly and nodded an OK, so he popped away again saying "Dobby brings food for the long wheezy to."

As Dobby left Bill who was more used to elves who haven't been ordered to be themselves sat blinking in astonishment and Salazar's statue, which had been silent during the story, hissed a chuckle and commented _~binding that elf the way you did was one of you best decisions to date little Heir but by Merlin's pink undies he's a weird one!~_

Bill spun around fast enough to cause whiplash at the eerie hissing sound that Salazar's comment caused to echo throughout the chamber, searching for the source of the sound. Harry's ancestor had been silent and unmoving during his recitation both to encourage him to open up and talk and to avoid any appearance of controlling Harry. For poor Harry bill's face combined with Salazar's irreverent comment was too much and he dissolved into uncontrollable giggles before hissing back ~_thank you oh illustrious Ancestor, now I have an image of a Dumbledoresque figure in frilly pink undies, I think I need an obliviate.~_ Bill continued to look unnerved although he had by now identified the statue as the source of the sound by Harry turning to face it during his reply so Harry took pity on him "William Weasley may I introduce you to my Patriarch Salazar Slytherin, he tends to forget when he's speaking Parseltoungue, it's a sign of age" (Harry grinned at the statue knowing perfectly well that Slytherin was only 'speaking snake' to get a reaction from Bill).

"A sign of age! The cheek, you know perfectly well I was deliberately…uhh I mean I forget how to speak English sometimes?" Salazar responded hotly before realising his little snake had set him up.

Bill groaned and rolled his eyes at Harry, "whatever you do Harry don't let Fred and George anywhere near him, they don't need the encouragement," he turned towards the statue "did you get the reaction you wanted oh illustrious founder?"

"Well not really, given current opinions on Parseltoungue I was rather hoping for girlish screams or fainting." Salazar replied unrepentant "This response probably bodes well for your ability to help my young Heir however, so well met William Weasley and welcome to the chamber."

"Well met Lord Slytherin and blessed days to you" Bill replied formally, giving the traditional greeting for a ghost (some ghosts could not move on until a person meeting a specific criteria wished them well, this was largely forgotten but the greeting had become traditional upon a new meeting with benign un-dead and spirits).

The statue chuckled "don't worry lad I'm quite dead, my spiritual presence on this plane is due to Harry and I having a connection to the Peverells and an agreement I made with the Slytherin family magic."

Bill nodded in acknowledgment of the rebuke and grinned saying "it's still a polite greeting Lord Slytherin."

Before a war of banter could break out Harry intervened with a question "Ancestor, what was that about the Peverells? I know Dobby said that my cloak belonged to Ignotus and that the white stag in my family's coat of arms represents them but how does that relate to you being in a giant stone statue?"

"Aren't the Peverell brothers just a child's story?" Bill queried remembering the tales of Beedle the bard from his childhood.

Salazar sighed "that question more than anything illustrates how much damage Cuthbert Binns has done to British magical history in his 350 year tenure, the Peverells were legendary already in my time, but they were not yet merely a legend. I actually married a woman of Peverell descent, not from Ignotus line but Cadmus although neither of us was aware of that at the time. The Peverells were historically speaking contemporaries of Merlin, they , like him, were magical pioneers, using the raw abundance of unshaped energy in new ways, and their family's affinity was for spiritual magics, it was thought that they descended from the great druidic dynasties of the Celtic era; unfortunately by the time of the three brothers there were few members left of their family perhaps because their spiritual bent often left them more concerned with the other world that human attraction, the line suffered extinction of the male line shortly after marrying into the Potter family. The Hallows were rumours only even in my time, but then the same was true for most powerful magical artefacts, who needs the unsavoury attention possessing one can bring? However Harry possesses the cloak, I saw Artemus Potter using the same item when I was alive, as you know invisibility cloaks last between 40 and 100 years depending on the initial quality and if the enchantments are properly maintained but this cloak is a minimum of 900 years old!"

"So the Hallows are real?" Bill asked at the same time as Harry queried "what are the Hallows?"

Bill blinked at Harry "Blimey Harry, that just underscores what a great disservice Dumbledore did you by leaving you with those people, The deathly Hallows are part of one of the most common children's stories in our world, thy are in the book 'The Tales of Beedle the bard' and it talks about three brothers, Antioch, Cadmus and Ignotus Peverell who bested Death before he tricked them by offering them gifts, Antioch chose an unbeatable wand of Elder wood which he boasted of and was promptly killed for, Cadmus a stone that could bring back the dead which drove him mad communicating with his departed love before he killed himself to truly be with her and Ignotus a cloak to hide from death which he passed to his descendants when he was ready to die."

"I good summary William, and yes I believe the Hallows are real, although their true powers, and the true nature of their owners or creators deaths is impossible to deduce at this late point." Salazar replied to their earlier questions.

"Ok" Harry answered slowly wondering how the heck thy had got on to this subject before remembering the gist of his original question "So how does that relate to you being here, the spiritual affinities must have been significantly diluted in my blood and the Slytherin one by this point and you never possessed them?"

"Ohhh good question Harry" Bill complimented grinning.

"Indeed good question little Heir, now tell me boys, what do you know about the founding of a magical line?"

"Ummm nothing" Harry replied with a grimace.

"Not much" Bill responded with a shrug, "There's something about being the first of your lineage in the British Isles and something about leaving a lasting legacy but I've no idea of the specifics."

"Not surprising" Salazar responded, "it's a very personal matter and you don't know if you've succeeded until after your death, but the reason I can be here now is that I am the Patriarch and founder of a deliberately created magical line, I originally left behind a legacy through the dedicated research and combined gift of myself and my wife Elaine, that legacy was the ability to impart life or spirit to objects, in the first instance Hogwarts itself, the work finalised after the death of my wife and in the end I sacrificed myself here in the chamber to provide the spark of life to awaken Hogwarts. Anyway after my death I found that it had worked, I was magically speaking the Head of the Slytherin line, my body was petrified ad I discovered if ever the head of my lien drifted from the principles I espoused, the family magic could do nothing and there was another viable option I could intervene. Sadly the Gaunts were very inbred so there was no choice there and your ancestors were non magical, but the events of a week ago fulfilled the criteria for my return, the fact that I'm helping the last of the Peverells if most likely what is keeping me here. I would imagine you wished for help just after you magic was unbound since that would coincide with me waking up."

"So I'm doing this? Will you leave if I do something wrong? What if I messed up and you're trapped forever?" Harry began babbling until Bill interrupted him.

He reached over and wrapped an arm around Harry's shoulders pulling him into a hug and murmured "breathe Harry, Just breathe."

Salazar was quick to reassure him ""It is all in the hands of magic child, your need called me but it does not bind me I stay as long as I have purpose."

"Sorry" harry muttered embarrassed by his outburst, but he NEEDED Salazar, he couldn't image returning to a life without his support.

"It's fine child, perfectly understandable, it has been a stressful week."

"Long day Harry, telling me everything must have been very difficult, maybe you should go and lie down for a bit, it is getting late….Tempus. Oh Merlin, it is late, how are we going to explain this!"

Salazar chuckled his creepy stone laugh and remembered what Harry had forgotten to mention, "you are going into the rooms just of off the Chamber and activating the time ward, your past selves re-entered the castle just seconds after you vanished from the room next to the infirmary, Harry can activate it, good night boys and see you a week ago, remember to watch out for yourselves and Mr Snape."

Bill nodded and waved vaguely as he steered Harry in the direction Salazar had indicated and they did as directed.


End file.
